impressedI only popped it in because I realized I didn't have John and Mary's birthdates on my timeline, and I realized that I could easily get Mary's birthdate by combining the grave stone in Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things (2x04) with the date in WIAWSNB. Also, WIAWSNB has a gravestone for John. So, now my timeline is all nicely edited and correct.
Then I was surprised...
I've seen this episode at least three times, five if you include watching it with commentary...and I still managed to see something I had never noticed before: Jared is phenomenal.
It's easy to focus on Jensen's performance in this one. It's a Dean-POV episode, it centres all around Dean's psychology, Dean gives an emotional speech and cries, etc...and I'm not taking away from that. Jensen does a great job, but throughout the episode Jensen is playing DEAN. The same Dean he always is - the Dean who has sacrificed his whole life, has lost his father, misses his mother, loves Sammy.
Meanwhile, Jared is playing a version of Sam that has never hunted, grew up with a family and a home, is studying to be a lawyer, is engaged to the love of his life, wears dorky clothes, and doesn't get along with or have much respect for his older brother. This isn't our regular brooding, messed up Sammy. This isn't Sammy at all...and yet, Jared magically plays him in a way where he's still Sam somehow, where the Sam we do know is still a visible possibility under this stranger.
Anyway, such a good episode.
Also, I noticed that both Wish!verse-Mary and Wish!verse-Sam tell Dean to "get some rest" at one point. It's a nice repetition that I missed before, but adds a nice little to the "something is not right" vibe.
