6.07 - Gaelic's Review - Episode Recap

[TeddyBearGirl]

Thank you all for the welcome! You're entirely right when you say I meant Sam was currently REACTING as a psychopath, someone unable to empathize with others, and not that Sam WAS a psychopath.
The people I have worked with, who have done heinous acts, if and when they come to their senses and begin to heal have a SHITload of guilt to deal with. But guilt is only good as a reminder of what you don't want to do again, and I try to help them see by changing their lives and living as if others mattered as much as they do that they can gain redemption. How is this going to work out in Sam's case? Depends on how they play it. If Sam's soul is still in Hell, how much does he know about what his brain and body are doing topside? In any case, there no doubt will come some guilt with the reintegration, not to mention any additional trauma Sam faced in Hell, which, as I read another fan speculate, could be of a more emotional mind-game trauma then the psycho-physical pain trauma Dean faced in Hell. I'm pretty sure Dean won't have any problem accepting/forgiving Sam after reintegration and will probably be a big help to Sam as he, as they both, heal.

[savedean]

Hey there, TeddyBearGirl! I'm pretty new around here myself. Welcome!

Anyway, I was re-watching a part of this episode earlier, and I forgot about something I had noticed since the first time I watched it. Right at the part where Dean runs around the place where they're looking for the alpha vamp, he sees all the dead vamps on the ground. Then there's a girl vamp in the window, and right before she's killed, she yells something - sounds like "Dean" to me. What do you guys think? Or am I crazy? P:

[TeddyBearGirl]

My take on that was that the girl at the window was one of the several extra hunters Samuel had brought in on the hunt and that she knew Dean briefly from the Campbell compound and called to him for help before one of the vampires caught and killed her. Any bodies you saw in the courtyard with heads would have been hunters killed by vampires in the battle since the only way to stop a vampire is decapitation.

[Gaelicspirit]

TeddyBearGirl --

Thank you so much for your post! You actually helped me balance out some conflicting thoughts I've had on where they're taking this storyline. Especially this part:

Dean is seriously freaked out right now, so don't look for him to calm down any time soon. Sam, to a certain degree, is reacting as a psychopath would. Don't take that the wrong way; research indicates that psychopaths, even when logical and intelligent, have an inability to realize or properly interpret the harm they do to others. WholeSam feels and cares very deeply, while SoullessSam can function quite well in his line of work, even taking pride in it, without being able to see how some of his decisions could hurt others or cause them to not trust him.

That really resonated with me. I have always been on board with the Show's chosen storyline -- even if I had some "go with it, Gaelic" moments here and there -- and I am this time as well, I am just struggling to wrap my mind around how someone can be without a soul and yet still be walking, talking, thinking, reacting, interacting, feeling (physically, anyway), etc. Up to this point, for me, and in my TV-watching experience (*grins*), having no soul has generally equalled dead or evil.

As Sam is neither, it's going to take me a bit to not tilt my head when he does or doesn't react to things. However, what you've offered here helps me tremendously in connecting the Sam-I-Remember with the Sam-That-Is.

Additionally, I totally agree about Dean. He's always been such a magnetic character for me, and the "twitchy trauma survivor" aspect drew me in and had me easily understanding his reactions and, to some extent, motives.

As someone with no training in why people do what they do other than simply surviving life, I really appreciate your viewpoint and hope to see you back on this thread in weeks/reviews to come.

Slainte!