I’ve got to be honest, I’m not sure how to react to this episode. From an objective standpoint, it was definitely one of the better episodes to come out of the past several seasons. The acting was on point and it had a good amount of suspense (although did we really think Sam was going to die and stay dead?). However, from a more personal view, I’ve got some things with “Red Meat”. I am a big supporter of Sam and Dean having a completely healthy and important brotherly relationship. I am not thrilled to see Dean being thrown back into the “I can’t exist without Sam” mentality to the point where he essentially commits suicide to bargain for his brother’s life, acting like his own life is so worthless without Sam to look after. It’s a plot line that has beaten to death. Is it too much to ask for a healthy sibling relationship in this show?? Seriously, I am sick to death of the nasty codependence that has its filthy little claws stuck in Dean Winchester (because, let’s be honest, Sam is not affected by the codependent mentality to the same intensity that Dean is).

AND ANOTHER THING: “Sam is the only one who can stop the Darkness” is a bunch of crap. Sorry, not sorry. We saw in “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” that Dean was capable of fighting back against Amara, even though the blade kind of shattered into a billion pieces, but that’s beside the point. Dean is able to combat the Darkness, but he sure as hell doubts his ability to do so. I would love it if, for once, that Dean would be the one to save himself for once, not Sam. Although, one the other hand, if Sam is the one to stop the Darkness it would mean he’d be cleaning up this mess he made in the first place by using the Book of the Damned against Dean’s wishes. But we’ve seen Sam be the hero so many times, it’s time for a change. It’s about damn time Dean gets to be the hero of his own story, his own destiny. And none of this “I’m just a witness” bull it looks like they’re trying to set up. 

I feel like I’ve ranted enough so I’m going to finish up now…