1×02 Re-watch

arlowritessam:

wendibird:

arlowritessam:

I noticed something that I thought was really interesting
when I re-watched 1×02 Wendigo for gif-ing purposes. There’s this moment where
the Monster of the Week is coming down the tunnels, ready to eat everyone. A
family, including the heavily injured Tommy, is terrified and both boys are scared
and Manfully Hiding It. What do they do?

They split up:

HALEY: We’ll never outrun it.

DEAN looks back at the others and makes eye contact with
Sam: You thinking what I’m thinking?

SAM: Yeah, I think so.

DEAN: All right, listen to me. Stay with Sam. He’s gonna get
you out of here.

HALEY: What are you gonna do?

DEAN winks and starts walking and yelling: Chow time, you
freaky bastard! Yeah, that’s right, bring it on, baby, I taste good.

SAM waits until DEAN is a safe distance away: All right,
come on! Hurry!

The family follows SAM down the tunnel.

These are the same boys who break down if there’s so much as
a door between them in season 13. And yes, they’ve gone through a shit ton of
stuff between the second episode and the nearly-three-hundredth. But at the beginning,
the ‘saving people’ part was more important than the ‘family business’ part-
although they both are way too self-sacrificial in the later seasons (and it
manifests in different ways for each), much of that martyrism is focused on the
idea of family. Dean feels the need to control and therefore protect his family,
Sam feels the need to cherish and therefore earn his family. To fulfill these values,
both will do almost anything to themselves.

But right here, Dean comes up with the idea- splitting up
and luring the monster away from the injured family. Sam is in sync. Both are
panicked, but both can see that this is the safest and quickest option- so Sam
lets Dean go. And then, when the wendigo is about to kill the civilians, Sam
throws himself in front of them- giving Dean the time to kill the monster. Both Dean’s attempt at luring the wendigo away and Sam’s attempt at shielding the civilians involve a degree of self-sacrifice- but it is to save people, and even if it means putting the other brother in danger, they immediately agree that it is the best option. They
are in sync, they trust each other, and more importantly: they value the lives
of the civilians more than they value their ideal of family safety- which
honestly, makes them a better family unit than they are in mid and even later
seasons.

What changes this?

Well, there’s a ton of factors, but I think a big one is
that John sold his soul for Dean. Dean hated this because of guilt and
complicated grief associated with such a sacrifice. Dean learned that family
was more important than ideological scruples, such as dealing with demons or
regarding an individual’s own autonomy. So when Sam was dead, he inflicted the
same terrible fate that had been forced onto him onto Sam- who then felt he
needed to make the sacrifice worthwhile by earning the privilege of life via
honoring family.

But in the beginning? Before the cycle of Death-Sacrifice, they
were brothers- brothers, and not Winchester Brothers. Just two boys who trusted
each other and valued each other and worked together to help other people. They
didn’t love each other less in the beginning, but they had a healthier dynamic built on mutuality.

I fully agree with everything mentioned here! I’d also like to add that another good example of this sort of thing in Season 1 was in the 15th episode “The Benders”. Yes, the whole time Dean was doing whatever it took to find Sam, maybe even more so than he had been at the start when it was just another case, but there was a specific moment that always gets to me, especially considering events in later seasons. When the family has Dean tied-up and they tell him to choose which of their two prisoners they’ll hunt, the lady cop or the guy (or they’ll kill them both,) when pressed Dean chooses Sam. Yes, he’s worried about his brother, but he also knows what he’s capable of. And he knows that despite all her police training, Sam will still have a better chance against them than the cop would. So he chooses Sam because he TRUSTS him, and because saving people is still important to him. It’s still their priority. (Now the family went and changed the rules, so it ended up being a moot point, and Sam still kicked ass, as did the cop, but I still appreciate what Dean’s choice meant.) Because I have a feeling that if that situation had instead happened in later seasons, he might have chosen differently. He would have felt bad about it, but I think it still would have happened.

I love this addition! You’re right- I’m pretty sure that something like this wouldn’t happen in latter seasons because when it comes down to a potential threat against Sam’s life or TRUSTING Sam’s skills and autonomy, he almost always picks the former.