SPN - In My Time of Dying question
Feb. 7th, 2008 07:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
agt_spookySo I was watching In My Time of Dying last night (and no matter how many times I've seen it, I still get teary-eyed at John's final scenes with his sons) and I've got a question that I've been wondering about since the episode first aired.
When Sam is in Dean's room for the first time, the doctor comes in and says that John is awake. Next we see John asking Sam what the doctor said about Dean's condition. Sam and John have their conversation and as Sam gets up to leave, John hands him that piece of paper. John says it's items for protection against The YED, but we then find out it's actually items to summon the YED.
Now here's my question - if John didn't know about Dean's condition prior to Sam telling him, why did he have that list already made up? He didn't know Dean was dying. He wouldn't already know he was going to summon the YED to make a deal for Dean's life.
So...why was that list already made up? Are we supposed to think that the doctor told John about Dean's condition before Sam came in and that John was just pretending he didn't know? Because really, why would John want to summon the YED with one son barely hanging on to life, another really beat up and himself in a hospital bed with a gunshot to his leg and his arm in a sling? None of them were in any condition to have what Sam called a "macho showdown" with the YED.
Am I the only one who wondered about that pre-prepared list? Or am I just missing something and it makes perfect sense to all of you? :-)
Any thoughts? Would love to hear them!
When Sam is in Dean's room for the first time, the doctor comes in and says that John is awake. Next we see John asking Sam what the doctor said about Dean's condition. Sam and John have their conversation and as Sam gets up to leave, John hands him that piece of paper. John says it's items for protection against The YED, but we then find out it's actually items to summon the YED.
Now here's my question - if John didn't know about Dean's condition prior to Sam telling him, why did he have that list already made up? He didn't know Dean was dying. He wouldn't already know he was going to summon the YED to make a deal for Dean's life.
So...why was that list already made up? Are we supposed to think that the doctor told John about Dean's condition before Sam came in and that John was just pretending he didn't know? Because really, why would John want to summon the YED with one son barely hanging on to life, another really beat up and himself in a hospital bed with a gunshot to his leg and his arm in a sling? None of them were in any condition to have what Sam called a "macho showdown" with the YED.
Am I the only one who wondered about that pre-prepared list? Or am I just missing something and it makes perfect sense to all of you? :-)
Any thoughts? Would love to hear them!
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Date: 2008-02-07 11:43 pm (UTC)My very simple take on things is that as part of his torture, the YED allowed John to be completely aware of everything he did to his boys. I got this impression from John's anguished, "Stop it!" when he comes out of the YED's control for just a moment inside that cabin, whether by his own strength or the YED's design.
At any rate, John is intimately aware of just how damaged, how close to death Dean was even before the accident. When he regains consciousness in the hospital, he reacts immediately and desperately.
To give Sam any chance at overcoming his sinister destiny, he has to have Dean at his side. John is willing to make this last desperate deal to save the one person he knows will do everything in his power to save Sam; Dean. He formulates a plan and has to get Sam's help to carry it out before it's too late, sacrificing even this last chance at reconciliation with Sam.
Even Shakespeare couldn't write tragedy this gut-wrenching. Maybe.