I'm gonna argue for Dean's time with Jack being mostly in-character. If they'd had a cure right then and Jack was balking at it I don't think Dean would allow that, at least not without some very heavy persuading. But Dean can slip easily into fatalism when there isn't a solution right in front of him and when he does his main coping mechanism is living right in the moment. It's the same when he's facing pretty much any catastrophe. Jack is coping with his impending death the same way Dean would. I think the big point of their interactions was that Dean doesn't just like but empathizes with Jack now. So, I'll give the episode that.
The thing that gets me about Sam's and Cas' dialogue being all about Dean's feelings is that it so easily could have been replaced by a few more lines of dialogue between Dean and Jack. Dean says he's sorry for how hard he was on Jack. Jack tells him it's okay, he understands Dean was just scared and broken-up over losing people he loved. Dean says Jack was just a kid and he shouldn't have put that on him. Done. That frees Sam and Cas up to talk about their own experiences with fatherhood.
Maybe Sergei didn't give them real archangel grace because he's a bad guy trying to slow them down from finding a cure? I don't know, depends on if he was a one-off red herring or if he's going to be a recurring villain.
I think Dean's the one who'll do the thing to bring Jack back from the brink/actual death. That's why he's getting all the daddy signposting right now. It's probably going to tie back into Michael.
Dean's dizzy spells could just be the open phone line between an angel and his vessel which Cas told us about in season 5 and which was kind of referenced again in this episode.
Maybe the Empty smacks Lucifer down and then pops off to Earth to put an end to this waking angels up business? That's my best case scenario, after the one where Lucifer is alive again for exactly how long it takes for Sam to stab him.
Poor Jack. Maybe he just doesn't have many examples of people living happy, fulfilling lives to compare his own short existence to?
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branchandroot
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Date: 2018-12-04 07:24 am (UTC)The thing that gets me about Sam's and Cas' dialogue being all about Dean's feelings is that it so easily could have been replaced by a few more lines of dialogue between Dean and Jack. Dean says he's sorry for how hard he was on Jack. Jack tells him it's okay, he understands Dean was just scared and broken-up over losing people he loved. Dean says Jack was just a kid and he shouldn't have put that on him. Done. That frees Sam and Cas up to talk about their own experiences with fatherhood.
Maybe Sergei didn't give them real archangel grace because he's a bad guy trying to slow them down from finding a cure? I don't know, depends on if he was a one-off red herring or if he's going to be a recurring villain.
I think Dean's the one who'll do the thing to bring Jack back from the brink/actual death. That's why he's getting all the daddy signposting right now. It's probably going to tie back into Michael.
Dean's dizzy spells could just be the open phone line between an angel and his vessel which Cas told us about in season 5 and which was kind of referenced again in this episode.
Maybe the Empty smacks Lucifer down and then pops off to Earth to put an end to this waking angels up business? That's my best case scenario, after the one where Lucifer is alive again for exactly how long it takes for Sam to stab him.
Poor Jack. Maybe he just doesn't have many examples of people living happy, fulfilling lives to compare his own short existence to?