While I've certainly stirred up a bee's nest, I'd like to ask that everyone simmer a bit, and let's discuss the emerging consequences of what has happened in the last episode, plotwise for Sam & Dean. (And please remember, this is an opinion)
SAM: It became apparent that Sam has actually lost his ability to feel, and is trying to hide this by acting angsty or snarky, or happy in all the right situations, except he's not fooling anyone--meaning Dean's not buying it. Dean is practically bent on killing Sam in his sleep because of his strange behavior, it's almost as if just coming clean about not being able to feel would be a better alternative to putting on that mask of faked care. Through the episode we see more strange behavior (is he getting off on making that woman cry? I really didn't get that part...) and it just makes him even more suspicious throughout the whole episode. At one point, when Dean is cursed by Veritas, Sam is confronted and asked a hard question. Then, somehow he is able to lie and claims he was in shock and was just not fast enough. However, later, he lies to Veritas herself, and she calls him out. The look on Dean's face was more than just foreboding. Sam shakes it off, kills Veritas, and attempts to explain to Dean what's "Wrong" with him, but Dean's seemingly had it. Sam goes into an explanation that seems so contrived and way too emotional for an emotionless person to produce. (After that scene with Dean in the hallway where he claims he'd always have Dean's back in a brotherly smile, he just peels the smile away into a cold glare as he walks away--how can we trust that again?) I was repulsed by his attempts to act emotional as the scene winded down, (breathing heavily? really obvious faked facial expression!? C'mon Sam!) he just didn't get it that him acting that way was the exact reason Dean was worried about him in the first place.
DEAN: Dean was a wreck this whole episode. He has had enough with this...whatever he thought Sam was (or wasn't) and he was this close to just putting him in the ground. For all he knew, Sammy was gone and had been gone for a year, and this thing was parading around as him somehow. Throughout the whole episode he would drink and speak threateningly about what he'd do to "Sam" and how he just wanted the truth. The whole episode was a singular device to show where exactly the two brothers stood in their respective storylines: Sam was heartless and realized it, but didn't realize what that could mean to Dean, and Dean was so messed up about so many things he was literally about to lose control and hurt someone--badly. Dean harbored this one sole hope that Sam was still himself and all this was some sort of post-hell stress disorder, and so when he was cursed by Veritas, he used it to ask Sam why Sam let the vamp turn him. Then, he took Sam's story of "freezing" as the truth, because supposedly Sam couldn't lie, and it would confirm the other hypothesis Dean had about Sam: that Sam had just become what Dean was--and that was emotionally screwed up. He figured it was Sam's mechanism for coping, just like alcohol, hunting, and burying emotions was Dean's collective mechanism for all the crap they'd been through over the years. Then, Sam lied to Veritas, and Dean's whole world seemed to crash around him as he realized that Sam would just refuse to speak the truth. I think at that point Dean was ready to break his anger upon Sam, but I don't think it would've been nearly as bad as it was since Sam tried to keep up his "emotional" charade that was 100% transparent and only dug him further into a hole. Dean's rage just released all at once--no thought, or intention--and he knocked the fool out of Sam.
OVERALL: It seemed that by the end of this episode we see just how far the relationship has fallen, mostly because of circumstances that might've been avoided if one of the brothers wasn't so emotionally-detached and the other wasn't so emotionally-charged. Not necessarily a one-sided issue, as Sam showed a heinous, cold side, and Dean completely lost his self control and beat Sam to a bloody pulp. Did either of them deserve it? I think in a way they both deserve it, but honestly I don't want either of them to have to go through something this tragic. Somehow this is even more emotionally investing to me than the vessel prophecy last season, cause then it wasn't Sam and Dean waging war, it was their possessors, but this time, it's a whole new level of drama, and I honestly hope that after this, the brothers will unify stronger than ever, and never have to be taken down to this level again.
Sorry, Sam. Sorry, Dean.........Sorry, Mittens.
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