supernatural, stranger in a strange land [14.01]

supernatural, stranger in a strange land [14.01] — i, ii

supernatural, stranger in a strange land [14.01] — i, ii

supernatural, stranger in a strange land [14.01]

supernatural, stranger in a strange land [14.01]

it's really interesting that in 14.01, when dean does not have an active role within the patriarchal structure of the narrative because his autonomy is being violated and he has been unwillingly removed, the narrative does not assign his position to anyone else.

unlike season one, in which dean is demoted from any kind of upper-patriatchal inclination whenever john resumes an active/sure position in their lives, not even sam is given as explicit of a patriarchal role as dean's despite the fact that he is quite literally offered it and he is, logically, next in line both in terms of the cycle of abuse as well as the familial structure. the apocalypse world refugees willingly refer to him as their leader and call him chief, they do what he says and they trust him almost unwaveringly but it is a role he has explicitly shrugged—he doesn't want to be called chief and he isn't around a lot of the time to 'command' them because he's out looking for the patriarch: dean.

sam's explicit rejection of this patriarchal role can even be seen throughout the episode: he makes avid attempts at reconnecting with ('mothering') jack after being apart from him for more than half of the previous season while consoling him about his lost grace (while bobby does the adoptive 'fathering', the toughening up) and he is the one who nurses nick back to better health; these are all indications of the perpetuation of the non-role that he has occupied before and that had only been accentuated through sam and dean's adoption of jack.

the way cas and sam's, as well as mary and sam's relationship operates is very indicative of the vacant (yet paused) role of the patriarch hanging over their heads; there have been so many instances over the seasons in which these characters are capable of having a relationship that does not revolve around dean or his absence, but this is only possible when his presence is a guarantee or there has been a more explicit removal of either party from the other. their relationship now revolves around dean—if they are having a one-on-one conversation, it's about dean like some kind of remixed bechdel test which furthers the idea that dean does indeed hold the current crested patriarchal position within the narrative. sam cannot take dean's role because that role is still dean's; the narrative has left the space open almost as a kind of foreshadowing that dean will return to take it and it is sam, cas and mary's responsibility that he be returned to it.

i think this points to the foundational crux of sam's character that is the explicit otherness that he exists to represent in terms of both the familial dynamic that was john-dean-sam and later the hunting dichotomy of 'hunter vs monster/us vs them' that are both continuously related to each other perpetuated within his patriatchal non-role. there's a layer of liminality here that aims to explore the dynamic that sam and dean have now that dean is absent: not only does sam's otherness that is encapsulated within his non-role with dean keep him properly tethered to The Life that they fight with and against together but the patriarchal structure and dynamic they have together vs the world cannot exist without dean.