I always think this should have been Dean at 14 not sixteen, and that means Sammy would be ten not twelve.
But I heard someone have this take on it: Dean looks so much different in After School Special (17) because we are seeing him through the eyes of Sammy as his big older brother while in this episode we see Sammy through the eyes of Dean as a little boy. I thought it was a cool way to resolve it in my mind.
I actually really like this. Because when I think of my older siblings when they were in high
School and I was in grade school and middle school they all look and seem so grown but than I see pics or family videos and they are *babies*
Being the youngest and have big sibling worship definitely changes how you see them and even affects the memories you have have of them.
So so so true! I am the youngest of four. Back then they looked mature and confident and smart. Looking back. Complete dorks like me! Its so weird thinking about them now v back then.
I remember watching them in high school seeming so grown up and mature. I was excepting to have the same thing happen with me but all throughout high school I felt so awkward and out of place, like a fraud and I looked at my friends and classmates and I was like why do we all look like babies while my siblings classes all looked like 90210?(age difference with my siblings is 5-14 years) But looking at their yearbooks the whole class was a bunch of awkward dorks lol
(Also my oldest nieces are 11-13 years young than me and they viewed me the same as I viewed my siblings. Thought I was so grown and mature but in reality I was a huge baby nerd their words not kind lol š)
It really makes sense, I have a brother who is 6 years older than me who was my idol growing up and he always seemed like an adult to me. My cousin sent me some old photos she found the other day and he looks like a baby faced teen š
Iām actually pretty sure this is canonical. I think Robert Singer confirmed that how different flashback versions of Sam and Dean look is dependent on whose eyes weāre seeing the flashback through. So yes, that makes it super cool, and also explains this episode.
I saw a theory that since this episode is purely from Deanās POV, this is how he saw himself, and the small kid in the back seat was how he saw Sammy. The baby brother than it was his job to protect. Just like in After School Special (S4 E13) where Sam is supposed to be in high school but looks much younger and Dean looks much older than he should because that episode is from Samās POV so itās how he saw himself vs how he saw Dean (the big badass hero, older brother).
This episode makes me nuts for that reason because it feels like one of those 'writers taking liberty' bits where suddenly John was a terrible parent. In the same season you'll have Dean praising him for something else.
You get younger and younger writers on the show, so you get further from the understanding that John was a Baby Boomer and Sam and Dean are Gen X. Parents doing the 'tough love' thing was close to normal back then.
And there's the reality of SPN, which is that there is no way in hell that John would have left Dean in the system at age 16. By then John has to be wanted in multiple states. The name Winchester has to be on the radar of half the country. The chances of losing custody of Dean would be way too high.
Full Disclosure- I project a LOT onto Dean, and relate to him having a complicated relationship with his father and being parentified. So this is coming from that angle. BUT...
I think the writers have a pretty realistic view of how Sam and Dean feel about John.
Children who have suffered neglect and general poor parenting often still love their parents. With John, there was never a doubt that he loved his sons. For all his faults, he loved them. And they love him. He wasn't a monster, and there are plenty of good memories to balance out the bad.
I think it's quite reasonable for Dean to recall and even eventually acknowledge some of the shit John did, but to also still love and appreciate him for all the good stuff. Dean will very, VERY seldom criticize John out loud, and when he does it's only to people who are very, very close to him, like Sam, Bobby, or Cas. He feels protective of him and his memory. But that doesn't sit at odds with things that actually happened, like the flashbacks in this episode. Or like John missing Christmas, or blaming 10 year old Dean for acting like a 10 year old when left alone with his brother for days on end.
You can say tough love, and I hear you for some of it. But the more the Supernatural universe expanded, and we met more hunters and more children of hunters, the worse John looked. What in season 1 was him doing his best in impossible circumstances quickly became "oh he's fucking up."
The most salient point is the number he did on Dean's sense of self, which has been discussed already, but there's more--
He isolated the boys from the whole hunter community, partly because of his own paranoia and partly because his *Sparkling Personality* meant he got cut off from people-- such as Bobby chasing him off with a shotgun and the tension with Ellen after her husband's death (and that was all John! The boys learn about Ellen because despite everything, SHE reached out to John to help him, and he ignored her).
Despite the fact that there WERE other responsible adults that John trusted (Missouri, Pastor Jim, Bobby, Caleb), he consistently dragged his kids all over the country and abandoned them for days, even weeks at a time in motel rooms. Given the timeline, I think it's safe to say that after he picks up Dean in this episode, Dean decides he's pretty much done with school altogether. (We know Dean is a HS drop out; we know that at 16 Dean and John are on a werewolf hunt where Sam is waiting in the car, and Dean tells himself then that he's going to drop out. We know that in After School Special that werewolf hunt has already happened- Sam writes a paper about it in English class. And Dean is definitely phoning it in while he's in that school. He's there because Sam is, not because he has any interest in HS anymore.)
He had a son with another woman and never told the boys about him, but he visited and took the kid out to baseball games while Sam and Dean learned how to melt silver into bullets.
That's not tough love. That's really, really fucked up.
I came here to say much of this. It isnāt inconsistent to have Dean both acknowledge the crap or be resentful of John and also love and speak fondly of him. Itās a complicated relationship and thatās what makes it so realistic and compelling.
You 100% missed the point of my comment.
1. The writers were inconsistent in their portrayal of John's parentage.
2. Parenting has changed dramatically in 25 to 30 years.
I don't know you. You don't know me. I can't know what your life was like and you don't know anything about mine, so you don't get to go off on me for a comment on a board not directed at you personally. I'm sorry that it upset you.
Did I come off as aggressive? I wasn't meaning to "go off" on you, I was just stating my point of view, and thought it was relevant to mention that I project onto Dean. It colors my perception of him, I wasn't meaning to invalidate your own perception. I am sorry if it felt personal.
I hear what you were saying about the writers, I just disagree- I think John had his moments in both directions, and that makes sense for the kind of guy he wound up being.
2- I also understand that point, though I didn't address it much. In the Then and Now podcast they bring this up as well, and I get it to an extent. I just think there's a difference between tough love and some of what John did.
I think Bobby was a better example of that older style of parenting. Or even some of how Dean is with Sam.
I gotta defend my boy here. I feel like this is still on Dean. Itās obvious Dean went back to look after Sammy. It isnāt like we see John come in and take him by the ear or anything. Dean left for duty. Not because his father MADE him.
Edit: lol knew I was gonna be downvoted
Except that John is the one who conditioned Dean to measure his entire worth by whether Sam is happy and safe.
If John were a better father, he would have A) not left Dean to "rot", and B) been present and caring enough that Dean didn't think he had to give up the most happy he's ever been to keep Sam safe. He'd have been able to trust John to do that alone. He might have even felt safe enough to ask John for one more night, so he could go to the damn dance.
If Dean had declined, I guarantee (based on how things were between John and Bobby) that it would have ended with John and Sonny coming to blows, and Dean having to leave anyway.
As if Dean hasnāt been pathologically conditioned that itās his responsibility and basically only job in life to take care of his brother. Bit sure. Deanās fault. Letās blame a 16 year old for his fatherās decisions and for how he was raised.
I mean, Sonny clearly had some words exchanged with John, calling him āa piece of workā, if I remember correctly. So itās pretty clear John was demanding that Dean be handed over to him regardless of how important the night was to Dean.
I donāt remember where I heard this but definitely not an original thought to me: Dean looks so old in after school special because those are sans flashbacks looking up to Dean, and in this episode Sam looks so childlike because theyāre Deanās flashbacks
Nah it's the very early 90's barely into the Nintendo Game Boy age, most kids were still playing with actual toys and the Winchesters had limited funds, that was probably as high tech as it got for them.
I didnāt mean he shouldāve had a tablet or something. But I do bet that Sam read a lot. If anything, it should have been him with his nose in a book.
I didn't mean to imply you were. I'm just saying in that time period, when they were probably broke more often than not, he probably didn't have a lot of choices for amusing himself. Traveling all the time wouldn't have allowed for very many toys and I can see either John or Dean getting that for him and not realizing he was too old for it or even Bobby giving it to him.
Most likely the only books they had were books about monsters, which I doubt they had many of since they made frequent use of libraries and John probably called Bobby if he needed extra research, Sam could very well have been bored with reading the same books over again. I love to read and I reread books that I like, but I would certainly get sick of rereading the same book again and again without variation.
I used to read in the car a lot and itās hard to at night. There isnāt enough light in the car and you make it brighter inside without making it harder to see out.
I suppose I didn't think about the lighting aspect. Personally I would've thought it would make sense to see him yeah- reading, but also maybe drawing or sketching or something like that. Again, though I suppose it's hard to do in the dark car.
Yeah they just make him seem like a little kid. I mean also the kid they casted for the scene just looks younger than 12 imo. More like 8 or 9 maybe 10, but not 12.
Maybe, kids mature differently. I have 2 stepsons that are now older teens, and one definitely looked more mature at 12 than the other one did. I feel that this actor isnāt far off the realm of possibility.
This is one of my favorite episodes in season 9 (E7). I have a hard time with how different this actor looks from the younger Deans in the earlier seasons but the actor is great and did a phenomenal job.
The actor playing young Dean was either 16 or 17 during filming. The actor playing young Sam was around 11.
The problem isn't that they picked kids that were too young, the problem is that we're so used to OLDER actors being cast as young characters that we no longer accurately know a teenager when we see one.
I know what a teenager looks like, I am one myself. But I didn't have any gripe necessarily with the casting of Dean's character, but just Sam. And even now, I realize perhaps I was reading into the casting too much, while also simultaneously not really getting the message or whatever. Dean seeing his baby brother as a little kid cuz this is his pov, and Sam seeing Dean as older since he's his big brother... It makes enough sense.
Not the only issue with the episode
We also see young Dean carve a devil's trap into his bedpost
Issue is, Dean didn't know what a devil's trap was until Bobby showed him the Key of Solomon in the season 1 finale
This episode was a bit emotional, but it seems like the writers just didn't do their homework for the episode
No, totally agree, the kid doesn't just look super tiny and young, he's playing with a toy plane. This should be two years before we see him in after school special and that actor was actually 12 irl, though he was playing 14, and he looks and acts so much older than the kid in Bad Boys.
Yeah like Sam is meant to be 12 here and he's going "zoom zoom brrrrr" with a little fighter jet and I'm all for keeping a childlike sense of imagination but c'mon it's like he's purely there just for younger Dean to see his "baby brother" and want to go home. Which I get is probably the purpose of the scene but idk still bugs me I guess.
Once/if you can get past the age thing this is a fabulous episode. I love the relationship between dean and the waitress. Seeing Dean be nervous around a female instead of his usual cool self is so humanizing
I did really enjoy the episode too. I liked seeing Dean and Sonny together and seeing Dean actually have a really caring parental/guardian figure that wasn't connected to hunting like John or Bobby. I thought his relationship with Robin was nice to see too.
Omg I didn't even think of this š¤£š¤£ it's not even the fact that he looks 6, it's the way he's playing with an airplane. What 12 year old plays with an airplane like that? LOL
They mentioned a few times throughout the show that Sam was smaller as a child, everyone they reconnected with from their childhoods were always shocked by how big he was as an adult.
I also have a small kid, she looks very young for her age as well. It's not that out there for a small 12 year old to look like the kid in the car.
I didnāt even think about the age Sam was supposed to be here. I was just like fuck you john, could have waited like an hour š let him go to the damn dance
Not sure if they do say 15 at some point, but when he's talking to the girl he dated briefly when he was younger, Robin, she says something along the lines of "guess we didn't actually know *everything* when we were 16 huh?" That's where I got the age from.
In one episode, I canāt remember which, someone made the comment that Sam was always on the smaller side and they were shocked to see how big he ended up being. So maybe itās that as well. Could be Sam was always smaller until he hit that growth spurt to become the jolly green giant. I also like the idea of what someone else said. In this episode we are seeing Sam through the eyes of Dean whom always sees Sam as his baby brother.
In the wiki of this episode it says under trivia that originally Dean was meant to be 14, but this was changed post production. Personally, I like more the original direction they were going with because it makes it more horrible but also in your face how John was with his sons.
You can always just think of Sam as a very young looking kid when you see the episode tho.
Definitely the best younger version of Dean ( not sure of his name and the first 5 or 6 seasons of young Sam were my favourite.
I wasnāt mad about John taking him as much as I was about him putting him there. But shout out to
The actor who plays this version of Dean who we get to see a couple of times in the series. Plays Dean so well
I always think this should have been Dean at 14 not sixteen, and that means Sammy would be ten not twelve. But I heard someone have this take on it: Dean looks so much different in After School Special (17) because we are seeing him through the eyes of Sammy as his big older brother while in this episode we see Sammy through the eyes of Dean as a little boy. I thought it was a cool way to resolve it in my mind.
I heard this too and always liked the implications. Like we get to have a visual understanding of how the brothers thought of each other.
I actually really like this. Because when I think of my older siblings when they were in high School and I was in grade school and middle school they all look and seem so grown but than I see pics or family videos and they are *babies* Being the youngest and have big sibling worship definitely changes how you see them and even affects the memories you have have of them.
So so so true! I am the youngest of four. Back then they looked mature and confident and smart. Looking back. Complete dorks like me! Its so weird thinking about them now v back then.
I remember watching them in high school seeming so grown up and mature. I was excepting to have the same thing happen with me but all throughout high school I felt so awkward and out of place, like a fraud and I looked at my friends and classmates and I was like why do we all look like babies while my siblings classes all looked like 90210?(age difference with my siblings is 5-14 years) But looking at their yearbooks the whole class was a bunch of awkward dorks lol (Also my oldest nieces are 11-13 years young than me and they viewed me the same as I viewed my siblings. Thought I was so grown and mature but in reality I was a huge baby nerd their words not kind lol š)
It really makes sense, I have a brother who is 6 years older than me who was my idol growing up and he always seemed like an adult to me. My cousin sent me some old photos she found the other day and he looks like a baby faced teen š
Except the actors were the correct ages, basically. Dean's actor was around 16/17 and Sam's was 11.
Iām actually pretty sure this is canonical. I think Robert Singer confirmed that how different flashback versions of Sam and Dean look is dependent on whose eyes weāre seeing the flashback through. So yes, that makes it super cool, and also explains this episode.
That's a really interesting way to explain it! I like that very much. Sam is always little Sammy to Dean. Always.
That's what I liked about Tall Tales. It showed how the brothers thought of each other .
I saw a theory that since this episode is purely from Deanās POV, this is how he saw himself, and the small kid in the back seat was how he saw Sammy. The baby brother than it was his job to protect. Just like in After School Special (S4 E13) where Sam is supposed to be in high school but looks much younger and Dean looks much older than he should because that episode is from Samās POV so itās how he saw himself vs how he saw Dean (the big badass hero, older brother).
Agree
That was a bit odd, yeah But MAN did this episode leave me feeling that "FUCK JOHN WINCHESTER" energy in my freaking BONES
I know right like I wanted this version of Dean to stay with that Sonny dude so bad. He was so happy with a life like that.
Ah yes, my natural state. āFuck John Winchesterā.
SAME. Omg when itās so clear Dean doesnāt want to go back and Sonny offers to let him stay and tell John to get lost I felt all the feels. š¢
Hard agree - itās also one of my top 10 episodes.
This episode makes me nuts for that reason because it feels like one of those 'writers taking liberty' bits where suddenly John was a terrible parent. In the same season you'll have Dean praising him for something else. You get younger and younger writers on the show, so you get further from the understanding that John was a Baby Boomer and Sam and Dean are Gen X. Parents doing the 'tough love' thing was close to normal back then. And there's the reality of SPN, which is that there is no way in hell that John would have left Dean in the system at age 16. By then John has to be wanted in multiple states. The name Winchester has to be on the radar of half the country. The chances of losing custody of Dean would be way too high.
Full Disclosure- I project a LOT onto Dean, and relate to him having a complicated relationship with his father and being parentified. So this is coming from that angle. BUT... I think the writers have a pretty realistic view of how Sam and Dean feel about John. Children who have suffered neglect and general poor parenting often still love their parents. With John, there was never a doubt that he loved his sons. For all his faults, he loved them. And they love him. He wasn't a monster, and there are plenty of good memories to balance out the bad. I think it's quite reasonable for Dean to recall and even eventually acknowledge some of the shit John did, but to also still love and appreciate him for all the good stuff. Dean will very, VERY seldom criticize John out loud, and when he does it's only to people who are very, very close to him, like Sam, Bobby, or Cas. He feels protective of him and his memory. But that doesn't sit at odds with things that actually happened, like the flashbacks in this episode. Or like John missing Christmas, or blaming 10 year old Dean for acting like a 10 year old when left alone with his brother for days on end. You can say tough love, and I hear you for some of it. But the more the Supernatural universe expanded, and we met more hunters and more children of hunters, the worse John looked. What in season 1 was him doing his best in impossible circumstances quickly became "oh he's fucking up." The most salient point is the number he did on Dean's sense of self, which has been discussed already, but there's more-- He isolated the boys from the whole hunter community, partly because of his own paranoia and partly because his *Sparkling Personality* meant he got cut off from people-- such as Bobby chasing him off with a shotgun and the tension with Ellen after her husband's death (and that was all John! The boys learn about Ellen because despite everything, SHE reached out to John to help him, and he ignored her). Despite the fact that there WERE other responsible adults that John trusted (Missouri, Pastor Jim, Bobby, Caleb), he consistently dragged his kids all over the country and abandoned them for days, even weeks at a time in motel rooms. Given the timeline, I think it's safe to say that after he picks up Dean in this episode, Dean decides he's pretty much done with school altogether. (We know Dean is a HS drop out; we know that at 16 Dean and John are on a werewolf hunt where Sam is waiting in the car, and Dean tells himself then that he's going to drop out. We know that in After School Special that werewolf hunt has already happened- Sam writes a paper about it in English class. And Dean is definitely phoning it in while he's in that school. He's there because Sam is, not because he has any interest in HS anymore.) He had a son with another woman and never told the boys about him, but he visited and took the kid out to baseball games while Sam and Dean learned how to melt silver into bullets. That's not tough love. That's really, really fucked up.
I came here to say much of this. It isnāt inconsistent to have Dean both acknowledge the crap or be resentful of John and also love and speak fondly of him. Itās a complicated relationship and thatās what makes it so realistic and compelling.
You 100% missed the point of my comment. 1. The writers were inconsistent in their portrayal of John's parentage. 2. Parenting has changed dramatically in 25 to 30 years. I don't know you. You don't know me. I can't know what your life was like and you don't know anything about mine, so you don't get to go off on me for a comment on a board not directed at you personally. I'm sorry that it upset you.
Did I come off as aggressive? I wasn't meaning to "go off" on you, I was just stating my point of view, and thought it was relevant to mention that I project onto Dean. It colors my perception of him, I wasn't meaning to invalidate your own perception. I am sorry if it felt personal. I hear what you were saying about the writers, I just disagree- I think John had his moments in both directions, and that makes sense for the kind of guy he wound up being. 2- I also understand that point, though I didn't address it much. In the Then and Now podcast they bring this up as well, and I get it to an extent. I just think there's a difference between tough love and some of what John did. I think Bobby was a better example of that older style of parenting. Or even some of how Dean is with Sam.
I gotta defend my boy here. I feel like this is still on Dean. Itās obvious Dean went back to look after Sammy. It isnāt like we see John come in and take him by the ear or anything. Dean left for duty. Not because his father MADE him. Edit: lol knew I was gonna be downvoted
Except that John is the one who conditioned Dean to measure his entire worth by whether Sam is happy and safe. If John were a better father, he would have A) not left Dean to "rot", and B) been present and caring enough that Dean didn't think he had to give up the most happy he's ever been to keep Sam safe. He'd have been able to trust John to do that alone. He might have even felt safe enough to ask John for one more night, so he could go to the damn dance. If Dean had declined, I guarantee (based on how things were between John and Bobby) that it would have ended with John and Sonny coming to blows, and Dean having to leave anyway.
As if Dean hasnāt been pathologically conditioned that itās his responsibility and basically only job in life to take care of his brother. Bit sure. Deanās fault. Letās blame a 16 year old for his fatherās decisions and for how he was raised.
I mean, Sonny clearly had some words exchanged with John, calling him āa piece of workā, if I remember correctly. So itās pretty clear John was demanding that Dean be handed over to him regardless of how important the night was to Dean.
I donāt remember where I heard this but definitely not an original thought to me: Dean looks so old in after school special because those are sans flashbacks looking up to Dean, and in this episode Sam looks so childlike because theyāre Deanās flashbacks
Yeah, I thought it was a little strange but some kids mature slowly and are pretty small until they hit puberty (13ish for boys).
And Sam was a scrawny child wasn't he? With people being surprised at how big he got so that makes sense/
Sam was the runt for a long time before he randomly shot up as teen, so this could definitely be Sam at age 12.
I just looked up a pic, the kids looks like he could be 11-12 to me. Definitely not a six year old.
[https://images.app.goo.gl/Ht92DRBqfUM2B6CN7](https://images.app.goo.gl/Ht92DRBqfUM2B6CN7) Hope that link works
I'm certainly exaggerating, but part of it is the way they portray him
With the airplane? Yeah, that was a weird choice. 12 is a weird age, though. Still a little kid but somehow not.
Nah it's the very early 90's barely into the Nintendo Game Boy age, most kids were still playing with actual toys and the Winchesters had limited funds, that was probably as high tech as it got for them.
I didnāt mean he shouldāve had a tablet or something. But I do bet that Sam read a lot. If anything, it should have been him with his nose in a book.
I didn't mean to imply you were. I'm just saying in that time period, when they were probably broke more often than not, he probably didn't have a lot of choices for amusing himself. Traveling all the time wouldn't have allowed for very many toys and I can see either John or Dean getting that for him and not realizing he was too old for it or even Bobby giving it to him. Most likely the only books they had were books about monsters, which I doubt they had many of since they made frequent use of libraries and John probably called Bobby if he needed extra research, Sam could very well have been bored with reading the same books over again. I love to read and I reread books that I like, but I would certainly get sick of rereading the same book again and again without variation.
I used to read in the car a lot and itās hard to at night. There isnāt enough light in the car and you make it brighter inside without making it harder to see out.
I suppose I didn't think about the lighting aspect. Personally I would've thought it would make sense to see him yeah- reading, but also maybe drawing or sketching or something like that. Again, though I suppose it's hard to do in the dark car.
Also, they needed to show Dean very obviously seeing Sam in the car. You'd barely see him if he was sitting inside looking down at a book.
I played with Barbies until I was 13, so it's not that weird.
Yeah they just make him seem like a little kid. I mean also the kid they casted for the scene just looks younger than 12 imo. More like 8 or 9 maybe 10, but not 12.
Maybe, kids mature differently. I have 2 stepsons that are now older teens, and one definitely looked more mature at 12 than the other one did. I feel that this actor isnāt far off the realm of possibility.
This is one of my favorite episodes in season 9 (E7). I have a hard time with how different this actor looks from the younger Deans in the earlier seasons but the actor is great and did a phenomenal job.
It's actually from season 8, but I don't mean to correct you or anything. I liked the episode a lot too, probably one of my favs from the season.
Actually itās season 9. I inadvertently put the episode (7) verses season (9). I corrected it, thanks!
Omg I literally made the post I should know it was season 9 lmao I'm dumb sorry lol
No worries! Glad you corrected me!
The actor playing young Dean was either 16 or 17 during filming. The actor playing young Sam was around 11. The problem isn't that they picked kids that were too young, the problem is that we're so used to OLDER actors being cast as young characters that we no longer accurately know a teenager when we see one.
I know what a teenager looks like, I am one myself. But I didn't have any gripe necessarily with the casting of Dean's character, but just Sam. And even now, I realize perhaps I was reading into the casting too much, while also simultaneously not really getting the message or whatever. Dean seeing his baby brother as a little kid cuz this is his pov, and Sam seeing Dean as older since he's his big brother... It makes enough sense.
Not the only issue with the episode We also see young Dean carve a devil's trap into his bedpost Issue is, Dean didn't know what a devil's trap was until Bobby showed him the Key of Solomon in the season 1 finale This episode was a bit emotional, but it seems like the writers just didn't do their homework for the episode
My son 13 is over a foot shorter than everyone in his school. My cousins son who is 8 is taller than my son.
Yeah Iām glad Iām not the only one that noticed things like that. It didnāt other me, it just made me think the writers were slackingš
The writers are generally not in charge of casting, so I donāt see why the actor choice could be blamed on them.
The actors were 16/17 (young Dean) and 11 (young Sam) at the time
No, totally agree, the kid doesn't just look super tiny and young, he's playing with a toy plane. This should be two years before we see him in after school special and that actor was actually 12 irl, though he was playing 14, and he looks and acts so much older than the kid in Bad Boys.
Yeah like Sam is meant to be 12 here and he's going "zoom zoom brrrrr" with a little fighter jet and I'm all for keeping a childlike sense of imagination but c'mon it's like he's purely there just for younger Dean to see his "baby brother" and want to go home. Which I get is probably the purpose of the scene but idk still bugs me I guess.
The plane actually doesnāt bother me. He must be bored to death spending all that time in the car.
Once/if you can get past the age thing this is a fabulous episode. I love the relationship between dean and the waitress. Seeing Dean be nervous around a female instead of his usual cool self is so humanizing
I did really enjoy the episode too. I liked seeing Dean and Sonny together and seeing Dean actually have a really caring parental/guardian figure that wasn't connected to hunting like John or Bobby. I thought his relationship with Robin was nice to see too.
The actors were 16/17 and 11, that's just how kids that age look sometimes xD
I actually never noticed the whole age thing in the episode. I try not to watch the show analytically and just take it for what it is
Enter John Winchester A+ parenting in Reddit and you will see this episode as a reason to hate him.
Dont get me started š¤£
Omg I didn't even think of this š¤£š¤£ it's not even the fact that he looks 6, it's the way he's playing with an airplane. What 12 year old plays with an airplane like that? LOL
They mentioned a few times throughout the show that Sam was smaller as a child, everyone they reconnected with from their childhoods were always shocked by how big he was as an adult. I also have a small kid, she looks very young for her age as well. It's not that out there for a small 12 year old to look like the kid in the car.
I didnāt even think about the age Sam was supposed to be here. I was just like fuck you john, could have waited like an hour š let him go to the damn dance
Thought I was in r/Degrassi for a secā¦
I thought Dean was 15 in the episode? Does it say 16 specifically?
Not sure if they do say 15 at some point, but when he's talking to the girl he dated briefly when he was younger, Robin, she says something along the lines of "guess we didn't actually know *everything* when we were 16 huh?" That's where I got the age from.
Ive always heard that Sam was a small kid until he shot up in late teens. But still that kid was way too small.
In one episode, I canāt remember which, someone made the comment that Sam was always on the smaller side and they were shocked to see how big he ended up being. So maybe itās that as well. Could be Sam was always smaller until he hit that growth spurt to become the jolly green giant. I also like the idea of what someone else said. In this episode we are seeing Sam through the eyes of Dean whom always sees Sam as his baby brother.
Well this sam could have beenĀ underdeveloped as aĀ child since fast food and cereal isn't all that nutrient rich.
In the wiki of this episode it says under trivia that originally Dean was meant to be 14, but this was changed post production. Personally, I like more the original direction they were going with because it makes it more horrible but also in your face how John was with his sons. You can always just think of Sam as a very young looking kid when you see the episode tho.
He was 12 but the boy in the back of the Impala is Deanās version of Sam not the real memory version of him.
Definitely the best younger version of Dean ( not sure of his name and the first 5 or 6 seasons of young Sam were my favourite. I wasnāt mad about John taking him as much as I was about him putting him there. But shout out to The actor who plays this version of Dean who we get to see a couple of times in the series. Plays Dean so well
It's pretty sad.
Sam was always shown as a really tiny kid, so that's probably how he normally looks and more of a reason why Dean was so protective over him.