Sylvia-- your review is SPOT-ON.  I agree with everything.  I'm not sure they even had a real script for this one, with as many plot holes it had.  Sam's hair and Dean's dance were the only positives that came out of this one for me.

Thanks for the review.

Celia -- Who here said anything about Jared Padalecki *not* being good? NO ONE that I can see. Speaking for myself, I am critical of the writing in this episode, not the actors. And I haven't seen anyone else make a comment that suggests "fanwank" except YOURS. And you might want to look up the definition in the of *fanwank* in the dictionary, because you are using it incorrectly. The word you're looking for is WANK.

And it's very interesting that in the same comment you speak of this "crazy ass fandom", YOU also have to take Dean down a few notches, in order to prop up your character of preference, Sam. I will say that move is very typical behavior by certain people in this fandom who's goal it is to create WANK.

"Dean needs Bobby to be the leader."

I completely disagree with this.

Dean understands that Bobby needs to be "needed" as a leader. But Dean does not need Bobby to be the leader. We have clearly been shown that Dean has moved beyond needing to be that "good little soldier/son." Dean has grown into an effective leader in his own right, which is why he knew *exactly* how to get through to Bobby in that scene.

Honestly, I thought this was one of the dullest episodes of the show in the entire series. It just seemed to drag and not really have much of a point, especially given that they're in the middle of the Apocalypse! And Patrick didn't seem to be really that bad of a "bad guy" at all, so I don't know why Dean and Sam were wasting time on this case. They even let him live in the end. Hal Ozsan was great in the role of Patrick though.

I thought Chad Everett was pretty good as older Dean, and it was nice to see him on TV again. I thought he had nice chemistry with Jim in their scenes together. Obviously Jensen owns the role of Dean in every way though, and I loved his happy dance return! :)

I thought the weakest aspect of the episode was the poker scenes between Patrick and Sam. The pacing was off, and it made absolutely no sense that Sam dragged out the reveal of his winning hand for so long, knowing Dean was close to death, if not already dead. Sam already knew he won the hand as soon as the flop was revealed, so why did he "act" like he lost in the end and drag it out? The moment Patrick revealed his hand, Sam should have flipped over his cards for the win. Why did he waste time talking to Patrick and his girlfriend before revealing that he had won? Patrick told him Dean only had precious few minutes left to live. I realize they were trying to ratchet up the dramatic tension in that moment, but it really did not work for me. I feel that the writing, direction failed big time in these scenes, and it's too bad because Hal Ozsan did a great job in the role.

The final scene between Bobby and Dean was really the only aspect of the episode I enjoyed. Jim Beaver and Jensen Ackles are GOLD in their scenes together. I adore Dean and Bobby's relationship and I especially enjoyed that Dean took the approach he did with Bobby, conveying love and caring, but also treating him with respect as a fellow hunter. I think Dean is trying to "gather the troops" and keep everyone together right now. He's becoming a wonderful leader. Although I do think Dean has apologized enough already!

Overall, I expect better from the show and Sera Gamble. Oh well, maybe next week.

"Only when it has been established that, for whatever reason, Dean is incapable or refusing to do it himself."

Not true. Dean did not refuse to go on the cases in Skin, Home, Nightmare, or Croatoan. My point is they both find cases, not only Dean. And there are times when Dean goes along with what Sam wants, when Dean rides along with Sam while he steers the ship.

"I also think everyone is forgetting the first what, four episodes this year, where Sam has done nothing BUT APOLOGIZE."

Sam has apologized for the apocalypse, which is something Dean kept telling him he didn't have to apologize for. Dean takes equal responsibility for that. Sam admitted trusting Ruby was his fault, although he felt Dean was to blame for this as well. But Sam hasn't yet apologized for his own behavior which led to him trusting Ruby, and hurting and betraying Dean's trust in him.

"it is PAST TIME for Dean to pony up a few "I'm sorry" of his own."

Dean has apologized to Sam for his behavior in WTLB, for his behavior in The End, and in FI for his current *and* past (last season) behavior toward Sam. Dean admitted that he was wrong and that he will "be whatever Sam needs him to be."

"and Dean always going "If I didn't know you, I would want to hunt you.""

ONCE is always? And Dean does know Sam, so obviously he doesn't want to hunt him. But other hunters don't know Sam and Dean is concerned about those other hunters. Sam has called Dean a freak (Pilot) and Dean has called himself a freak as well. They do both have issues to work out, I agree. That's why I appreciated Dean saying that he would be "whatever [Sam] needed him to be" while acknowledging that his behavior toward Sam was wrong and that he was sorry. I'm just waiting for Sam to do the same, that's all.

Riiiiiight. ;-)

"just as Dean had his reason for wanting to chop Sam up with an axe and punch him in the face numerous times, not to mention all the wisecracks."

Well, to be fair, Dean was under the influence of the siren when he wanted to "chop Sam up with an axe." If Sam had the axe in his hand, he would have tried to chop up Dean with it. The siren's venom drove ALL of it's victim's to kill. It's just in the case of Sam and Dean, the siren also pushed them to tell the truth.

And let's not forget that Sam tried to strangle Dean to death. As we now know, Sam didn't need the feather to fly, so the demon blood wasn't an influence -- it was merely a ruse by Ruby to manipulate Sam.

Both boys have punched each other in the face. I don't think either is right to do it, however.

Dean wisecracks and Sam pulls his disapproving bitch face. That's their shtick.

"But, on this show, with the fans, miles vary. Everyone sees what they want. "

Apparently so... "St. Dean"? Give me a break.

I certainly hope the writers are not referring to WTLB only. That makes Sam look even worse, in my opinion.

Sam was still an addict at that time. He felt Dean was "bossing him around" but Dean was merely trying to point out that Ruby did NOT have Sam's best intentions at heart. She was poison. Dean asked Sam to leave with him, but just the two of them. Sam felt Dean was trying to tell him what to do, but Dean was trying to get Sam away from Ruby, his drug source. Dean refused to go as a "tag-along" with Sam and Ruby, not because Dean wanted to call the shots, but because Dean did not trust Ruby and wanted her away from Sam. If Sam *still* feels Dean was being "bossy" there, especially knowing now that Ruby's intentions were to get Sam to do what she need him to do, then I think that is truly horrible of Sam to think this! Dean was concerned about Sam and feared for his safety.

And Sam has called the shots just as much as Dean has in their partnership. I can think of episodes like Skin, Home, Faith, Nightmare, Croatoan, just off the top of my head as examples where SAM took the lead, and insisted they work the case. In Scarecrow and Time is on My Side, Dean wanted to go one way, Sam wanted to go another, and they both went their own way.

And Dean certainly had no control over Sam's actions at all last season. As has been shown before, Dean offers his opinion and POV, but Sam does what he wants to do anyway. I agree that Sam needs to be allowed to grow up and take responsibility for his actions, but that means that SAM has to work on changing his behavior as well, not only Dean. And all I saw in this episode was Dean changing his ways and Dean apologizing for his behavior toward Sam, and it needs to be a two-way street.

Actually Celia, Sera Gamble (as one example) has stated several times that the writers are very grateful for Jensen being able to "make it work" when they know that certain scenes as written are just not up to par. So no, Ackles does not necessarily need specific dialog to convey Dean's feelings, or as you say, "act the part." And the writers of Supernatural are aware of Jensen's ability to use non-verbal acting to convey his emotions. "Jensen get's it." [Sera Gamble in the AHBL1 DVD commentary].

Also, for your interest perhaps, is this statement of Jensen's acting from TV Tropes.com (Television Tropes and Idioms):

"He's one of those actors where you can throw anything at him from an acting challenge point of view; you can shoot him, tie him up, torture him, dumb him down, make him all bloody and bruised, wring the emo from him and generally have him flung against a hard, inanimate object nearly every episode and he'll eat it up with a spoon and knock it out of the park every damn time. "

And finally, I don't know why you feel it's necessary to criticize one actor merely to prop up your preferred actor.

I agree with your opinion on the episode, M.R. I was very disappointed by Julie Siege because I've enjoyed her other episodes. But this one was a mess from beginning to end (except, ironically enough, for Paris Hilton, who I thought did a pretty good job).

This episode didn't do either of the brothers any favors, but I felt Sam came off much worse. That he actually used the excuse he just wanted to "get away" from Dean and that was a reason for him choosing Ruby, is just horribly disappointing. And lets not forget that when Sam started up with Ruby, Dean was DEAD. Not quite sure what Sam was getting away from then? Sam has show that he has a tendency to be single-minded about revenge, as he showed yet again at the beginning of the episode regarding finding the Colt. It seems he hasn't changed.

And it isn't up to Dean to allow Sam to grow up. It's up to Sam to actually grow up. I don't know how Sam can possibly blame Dean for his overprotective behavior after Sam spent all of last season feeling that he was *right* to be with Ruby, use his powers, drink demon blood, and allow an innocent woman to be killed for her blood. Those are things that "all grown up" Sam did, despite Dean's warnings that Ruby wasn't to be trusted. But Sam apparently felt he was right to get away from his "bossy" big brother and that was all that mattered.

I appreciate Dean recognizing that his big-brother behavior may not be conducive to a partnership Sam appreciates, so he apologized for it. And Dean also apologized for not recognizing how his behavior got in the way of him seeing Sam's demise before it was too late. Bravo to Dean for recognizing the changes he nees to make and for apologizing to Sam again, but I don't see, especially in light of Sam's declaration that he wants to be responsible for his own actions, how Sam could agree with Dean's apology. It's not Dean's job to watch over Sam.

Now, it would be nice to see Sam apologize for his own behavior of last season and how his actions (trusting a demon over his brother, not respecting Dean by calling him weak, and trying to choke him to death). Dean is the only one who apologized to Sam about his actions/words of WTLB and Dean is the only one who has apologized for how his own behavior affected and hurt Sam. So yeah, there's quite an imbalance in the brother's relationship right now, and one that I need to be corrected in order for me to feel that this is truly an equal partnership.