#What Is And What Should Never Be

[daddario]

Sam and Dean lacking personal space in every episode - 42/327

[jarpadandjensens]

SPN 2.20 | I am not drunk. Quit screwing around!

[coca-colas-truck-driver]

soccer mom sam you were real 2 me

[uh-ohspaghettio]

Merry Christmas from totally not photoshopped Christmas photo

[ghostcreaturetypething]

“Wait no no no no, come pick me up first.”

Sam is such a younger sibling

[soft-pine]

spn20rewatch: 2.20 what is and what should never be

this has got to be in my top ten episodes of all time! there is so much i love about it! it has my favorite favorite scene and then my other FAVORITE FAVORITE SCENE!!!

but before we get there it has some wonderful dean character moments.

dean's confused, withdrawn, performative kiss with carmen!

this whole scene watching his face go from performance to confusion and worry and back and forth! he is so funny and i love him so much!

but this is also a cruel foreshadowing that the next two kisses dean has are him specifically sacrificing himself and his body as a means to an end.

but we're not there yet so let's just bask in THIS!

DEAN: Well, who'd'a thought, baby. We're civilians.

or THIIISSSSS!!!

DEAN Dad's dead? And the thing that killed him was a... MARY A stroke. He died in his sleep. You know that. DEAN That's great.

or the way dean is so fucking happy to see jess and it's heartbreakingly sweet!

there is also so much that can be said about how even in dean's "dream world," he's the family fuck-up. he's never really thought much about his own future or himself but the best thing he can picture is his family (or most of them, HA!) alive and happy and safe. and i think there's a component of this where he has to remove himself (and John) in order to imagine it being possible. gutting honestly.

season two opens with dean yelling at john (though john can't hear him) and ends with dean crying at john's grave. i'm interested in the shared threads between these two iterations.

2.01

DEAN: I've done everything you have ever asked me. Everything. I have given everything I've ever had.

2.20

DEAN: Course I know what you'd say. Well, not the you that played softball but... "So go hunt the Djinn. He put you here, it can put you back. Your happiness for all those people's lives, no contest. Right?" But why? Why is it my job to save these people? Why do I have to be some kind of hero?

the speech in 2.20 is actually one of the very best explanations i feel we ever get for dean's relationship with john. because the issue is not only that john forced dean into hunting, it's that hunting saves people. like dean can rail against john and against his childhood that was stolen and against his future that will be stolen and against all the cruelty and harshness and ways he was parentified and it was subtly reinforced that his life literally mattered less than sam's or than strangers. but hunting does save people, goddammit and dean both cares so deeply about that on his own that many of these sacrifices would be freely chosen and he cannot fully hate or distance himself from his father because so much of what john did was actually just straightforwardly good.

abuse is messy. i think john winchester's characterization is perfect, actually.

dean can much more easily put to rest a father who played softball than a father who "got a bum rap around every turn. But you know what? He kept going. And in the end, he did a hell of a lot more good than he did bad." (8.12)

like dean has to remove himself and john from their family's lives to picture their family getting a happy life. but for it to feel easy, he also has to make this father one who just worked at a body shop (i'm extrapolating) and played softball.

so yes, okay this episode is a nonstop thrill ride of beautiful, cute, wonderful dean moments and utter heartbreak. so of course, the next thing i have to say is THAT THIS SCENE IS SO FUCKING CUTE!!!!! i can't stand it! (rip to the "I know how it sounds" that i didn't squeeze in because it was too long. because that line just kills me !!!!!)

but look look look!!!! he's so smooth and cunty AHHH

so it follows that what comes next is heartbreak. dean wants a future where mary is alive, where jess is alive, where sam is happy and safe and in college and alive. and it's not real and he can't have it and it will kill him but he wants to stay. so he stabs himself in the heart.

and in the next episode sam dies anyway.

... well here we are, this is already so long and i haven't even talked about my actual favorite scene. which also, i think, happens to be my favorite scene in all of supernatural....

Dean realizing one of the other of the djinn's victims is still alive and catching her as sam cuts her free.

DEAN: I gotcha. I gotcha. We're gonna get you out of here, OK? I gotcha. I got you.

the way the fact that he's in pain and weak and drained is layered throughout the desperate care in his voice here.... besties i don't have words...

all hail 2.20

[samwinchestersgirl83]

Parallel time!

Dean wanted out of the djinn dream because he and Sam were not even remotely (incestiously) close in season 2.

Sam wanted out of the AU in The French Mistake because he and Dean weren’t even brothers in that timeline in Season 6.

That was their sole argument for wanting to escape those timelines individually.

[jt1674]

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Led Zeppelin – What Is And What Should Never Be

[wrenwinchester]

You know. One of the cruelest things ever done in supernatural might be putting all hell breaks loose after what is and what should never be.

Like.

We have heart, followed by Hollywood Babylon and Folsom prison Blues, into what is and what should never be. And then boom all hell breaks loose. Like.

Sad, funny, normal, happysadhappysadsad, and boom sadsadsadsadsad. Like

Do they want to destroy us. (Yes of course they do.) but that’s such whiplash. I think I’m gonna cry.

[sweetpapercroissant]

softest boy in the world and his too long sleeves 🥺

starting a collection, feel free to add on <3

[daddario]

[jarpadandjensens]

#SPNWEEK | day three | Classic SPN : Monster of the week

| Djinn

[coca-colas-truck-driver]

the fact dean’s main reason for leaving in “what is and what should never be” was his brother getting engaged and planning to go back to california

[spn20rewatch]

Season 2, Episode 20: What Is and What Should Never Be (December 2nd)

After Dean is attacked by a djinn, he wakes up in a world where he is no longer a hunter. -Super-wiki

Originally aired on: May 3rd, 2007

Written by Raelle Tucker, directed by Eric Kripke.

Fun fact: From Super-wiki, the address on Mary's house is reversed from the address on their home in 1x01. It was 1481 in the Pilot, and in 2x20 it is 1841.

Have fun re-watching and tag any posts with #spn20rewatch!!

[ghostcreaturetypething]

“Get out of the car.”

“I’m goin with you.”

“You’re just gonna slow me down.”

“Tough.”

“This is dangerous and you could get hurt.”

“Yeah, and so could you Dean.”

“Sam!”

“Look, whatever stupid thing you’re about to do, you’re not doing it alone, and that’s that.”

“I don’t understand, why’re you doin this?”

“Because you’re still my brother.”

“Bitch.”

“What’re you callin me a bitch for?”

“You’re supposed to say jerk.”

“What?”

“Nevermind.”