Carry On rewatch — some details
We don’t know how much time has past. Enough time that grieving Cas and Jack is not a raw fresh pain. It could be six months or more.
The dad, who vaguely looks like Dean with that haircut, is stabbed in the back, and it’s completely unexpected. The wife lives on without him.
The boys under the bed — the older one is the one we see yanked away while the other one reacts.
The complete anonymity of the masks reduces the monsters to just being monsters; it allows an audience that has long been desensitized by MOTW episodes to feel the threat of a monster again.
The anonymity also takes away any fame as “the monster that killed dean winchester.” it’s just a monster. like the rest of them. it doesn’t matter who it was.
the mom’s tongue ripped out — pure victimization? she’s a silenced victim, but Sam and Dean are going to help her get her kids back anyway. She is also a parent ripped out of the story, possibly fridged— her sons were taken from her while they thought she was dead, but they’ll see her again.
John hunted these vampires in 1986, only 3 years into his life as a hunter. He was a total rookie. He didn’t know vampires weren’t extinct. He maybe even didn’t know they existed at all.
To reiterate, Dean was 7 and Sam was 3. It’s a very very old vague case in their notes. One that went from “jeez what were those things” to “oh that’s just a really culty bunch of fangs” during passing rereads of their dad’s journal.
interrogation threats — very nice throw back to the middle seasons when the brothers were established as so very very lethal
Dean plays up Sam’s myth as a monster killer, not his own.
they use all the tricks in the book to save anonymous family #2 and get info on the missing boys. it’s a clean sweep. but when it’s time to finish the job they swing wild with the machetes, because this is routine, this is every day, this doesn’t even make their pulses race anymore.
for the audience, Jenny is an excuse to see those baby faced brothers look naive and frightened in that flashback
For Dean, she’s an opportunity. He dials up the cocky charm but only gets confident when he sees Sam’s hand move — Sam is alive, he’s moving, Dean can count down the seconds until Sam lops off another head and they win the fight
Dean’s fatal wound mirrors Faith and Devil’s Trap and All Hell Breaks Loose and Do You Believe In Miracles? — His heart is damaged and he’s fading, He’s pinned to the wall and bleeding, he’s been stabbed in the back by fate just as his brother thought they were in the clear, and he dies in Sam’s arms.
I think all those parallels are “the natural order of things” finally reaching equilibrium. Dean’s death is the final ripple to fade from a sea that is finally calmed.
Sam’s feeling great after that fight, he got the job done, time to go — but Dean tries to inhale and you can hear it, that piece of iron is in his lung. It’s too close to his heart.
Monsters have always loved to go for Dean’s heart. Faith, Azazel, Clawed Thing of the Week #6. I’ve always suspected that his death would be something through the heart, or that his heart would just give out. Since he had time to talk, I think that is what happened. As much as it breaks my heart I think it suits him.
The first part of Dean’s goodbye is something he planned to say. He’s looked ahead to his final death, he’s thought about what he should say. But then his heart really really opens up. And it all comes rushing out. What he really needs to say.
I really can’t say more about it, I’m not done crying and crying so I can’t linger on it
Dean’s watch — Sam could keep the watch and the car because he knows Dean isn’t coming back. He knows Dean is at peace and he won’t be tethered. He wakes up with it the morning after.
Toast — people startle like that when they have PTSD. And then Sam turns around and this Dean’s cue. In their routine, this is the first moment he is supposed to see Dean in the day.
signed job offer on the desk
phones — Dean’s other other cell.
When Sam answer yes he is agent bon jovi — He straightens his back. He’s still a little brother, even though he can more than hold his own, even though he’s Dean’s equal in every way, he still feels a weight of legacy sinking on him.
Dean’s untethered, he’s free of responsibility and regret. He got the death he wanted and Sam accepted it, which is what Dean needed, and that goes all the way back to that very first time he asked Sam to accept his death in Faith and Sam didn’t, and then again in In My Time Of Dying, when John didn’t. That has been a disruption in Dean’s acceptance of himself, it’s shaped his relationship with death for a long long time. Now he’s free.
Apparently other people were supposed to greet Dean but COVID added limitations and honestly it couldn’t have been better than Bobby. Dean can trust Bobby’s word about the state of things, and he’s the one Dean probably didn’t think he would get to see.
Dean’s fond smile about Cas. He knows Cas is okay. and he has time to see Cas and the others.
He’s on his way. He just has to pick up his brother first.
I’ve already said this but those KAZ plates — that is Dean’s car before he had to rebuild her. That’s his home.
Dean puts Cas’s last words into practice— Happiness isn’t in the having, it’s in just being. He’s liminal, he’s on the road, he’s on his way, first stop, pick up Sam and then from there they’ll go see everyone.
I really do think what we see of Sam is Dean’s perception as he drives. That’s why his wife is a blur, but the kid isn’t. Dean has a connection to the kid via Sam naming him after Dean.
Complete headcanons here but: Hell, maybe the kid is a little psychic and really has a connection to Dean that gives him a glimpse of Sam’s life.
the photos on the mantle are telling the kid’s story, not Sam and Dean’s. Sam and Dean grew up with a big question mark as their family’s past. Sam isn’t leaving his kid in that position.
I love Sam’s old man hair.
I don’t think his life after Dean has been horribly sad, but I think the car is where he goes when is sad.
Sam’s life is dialectically line with Cas’s last words. It’s happy and sad but the sadness doesn’t negate the happiness.
Sam can feel Dean when he grips the steering wheel. It’s not just a moment of grief. He can feel that Dean is driving. call it psychic!Sam, or Dean residue in the car, or jack opening the veil just a crack, I don’t know. But that is what that moment is.
I don’t like that cover song but you know what? it’s 2005 as fuck so who knows, maybe Sam would dig it.
Sam’s son knows how to accept death and grief. And he knows his legacy. And Sam doesn’t have to be tethered bc he knows he raised his kid right. The kid’s gonna be alright.
Dean knows why he’s at the bridge. And that smile to himself before he says Sam’s name. He’s so excited.
He’s confident that Sam will say yes to the journey, that Sam wants to be in that car and be his brother.
Given the chance to do anything or arrive anywhere in heaven, Sam wants to be on that bridge with his brother and then drive off with him. It’s not a repeat of a memory — it’s an act of love. This is where it always starts. So it’s a perfect place to end the show.
Sam arrives with “Dean’s Theme” as the closing music. But it’s not a sad song anymore.
Sam isn’t wearing Dean’s watch, because Dean is wearing it again.
Sam is taking in the sight of heaven — Dean steals that little glance, and smiles and nods. Now it’s perfect.
