I think the reason Death made this bet with Dean was to show him that despite his need to save people Dean doesn't value life. He's a hunter because he loves his family and would do anything for them but he has a shallow view of life and death. He believes everyone that is good should live long and happy lives but that is not what life is, death gives life meaning, and to know that it is short is what makes it precious. Death in many respects values life more than Dean. Rigged?! If there ever was a moment I wanted Death to smack Dean around was here. He gave him a fair bet, at most Death had the feeling it would have been difficult for Dean to win but that is it.
Also Sam really is a study in how sometimes giving people autonomy means letting them make bad decisions too, otherwise it's not really autonomy. He loves to make bad decisions 😂
"There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture, now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threating getsture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra." - Death
I love Death as a character, this and Death from the Terry Pratchett books are my favourite depictions. Also I love you shouting 'Sam!' at the screen like he can hear you, really shows how invested you've become which is brilliant.
In regards to Sam's hell vs Dean's hell, there is no contest who had it worse. Yes, being tortured to the point for 40 years where you break completely and start to enjoy torturing others would take a world class therapist to recover from that. But a therapist at the very least still has something to work with there. If Deans hell is comparable to a war vet with PTSD on crack, then Sam's hell would be more like watching your absolute worst unthinkable nightmares that defy reality itself literally coming to life.
True I do think Sam had a worse experience in hell, but I still agree that Dean needed to get his soul back in his body. Soulless Sam was too risky to keep around
Dean could at least stop the torture, he had a safe word. after 30 years he couldn't stand it and tortured others for another 10 years, and Sam was tortured for 180 years just because he couldn't stop it. he knew that he would be tortured, even if he could no longer endure
Yes, this was a BIG and pivotal episode. This was the mid-season finale in December 2010. Yes, the unintended consequences of Dean messing with the natural order of death was powerful. We've seen this theme on Charmed and on the Friday the 13th TV series. Yes, I love Tessa. And I love the actress who plays her (Lindsay McKeon). She did a movie around this time called Airline Disaster where a group of white supremacist terrorists take over an Air Force One Type aircraft to demand the release of some other white supremacist criminals who were in prison. Lindsay McKeon was the SS Agent on board who has to deal with these terrorists. She's totally Bad-Ass to watch in this movie. Yes, the plot is thickening for Season 6 now.
It's really messed up if you think about it. There's Sams body on earth but OUR Sam, Deans little brother, never left hell, he's been down there 1,5 years now with Lucifer like that is 180 years in hell time BOY our Sammy 😭
So glad you let yourself have a break! I love your SPN reactions and I'm so glad you are sharing them with us, but don't let it become a chore for your viewers sake. We will take you as you come! Love you girl and I'm looking forward to your continued journey.
When I saw both the injection at the start of this episode and Bobby being in danger, I knew this would be an amazing reaction. :D I see what you mean when you say it could've been a two-parter. I would've liked to hear Sam and Bobby talk about Sam's lack of a soul. I wanted to hear Bobby's thoughts on it.
Soulless Sam used to be the worst thing ever for me. But after rewatching, I honestly have to say that it's my second favorite arc for Sam, next to another of his arcs in season eight. Sam attacking Bobby just reaffirms the need to restore his soul, and the moment where Death has him lying there and he looks over at Dean and Bobby and there is genuine fear there... It's such a good way of setting up a potential struggle. It's so good.
Man Dean really went through a roller coaster this episode. After having to be death for a day and failing (not that we wouldn’t have made the same mistake in his shoes) he had to face the real possibility of killing his brother before he hurt anyone else ( and no doubt kill himself afterwards if he went through with it) just for Death to come around and dick with him putting Sam soul back anyway and while that might sound like a win they still don’t know if it will even work
I'm not sure if consent is needed to put a soul back where it belong. It's not like Sam asked to have his soul removed in the first place. We don't ask pets if they want to extend their lives or not. This is all very confusing. Supernatural writers have this knack of putting characters that we love in moraly ambigous situations. There is no definitive anwser to a lot of questions we have about this show. Maybe that is why we love it. (We hate it a little, but we also love it a lot.)
Well you know, Bobby, after saying Dean's your favorite a few episodes ago... i don't feel too bad for ya lol. Jokes aside, this was such a great episode and one heck of a cliffhanger to end a mid season lol.
I love when Robert Englund appear in SF / horror movies/tv shows. The vibes with him are really good. And the actor who play death are really really good , a perfect character for him. I think it's nearly the most terrifying entity that Dean is afraid.
I forgot you end up just before this episode.... I cannot wait to see your reaction to 17 and 18 episode of this series.... There is one more thing I will not mention, not knowing how far you are on Patreon, not wanting to spoil anything
I don't know why, but I love Death's fondness for unhealthy food. It's just such an odd, meaningless quirk, but it makes Death really feel 'alive', for lack of a better word. It makes me think this is a being that has existed for untold amounts of time and enjoys passing the time by sampling food from every corner of the world.
