Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) discover a he-witch (guest star Hal Ozsan) is running a high-stakes poker game where the currency is life years instead of money. Bobby (Jim Beaver) sees the game as a chance to get out of the wheelchair and bets 25 years, but loses. As Bobby begins to age rapidly, Dean steps in to save him but also ends up turning into an old man, leaving Sam holding the bag for their survival. Robert Singer directed the episode with teleplay by Sera Gamble and story by Sera Gamble & Jenny Klein.
I’ll admit right now I went into watching The Curious Case of Dean Winchester with a large grain of trepidation. Not because of the plot line though, because I was fairly certain that Sera Gamble as one of Supernatural’s veteran writers would be able to create a credible storyline around the premise of a he-witch with the powers to give to or take years from a person’s life. What I had the trepidation about was knowing that instead of putting the highly talented Jensen Ackles through the aging process via special effects make up, the studio had chosen to send out a casting call for an older actor to play the part of seventy-some year old Dean Winchester.
The way I saw this,we had a fifty-fifty chance of the casting director making a brilliant choice such as was made when young Ridge Canipe was chosen, not once but twice to portray a younger version of Dean Winchester (most notable as 12 year old Dean in Supernatural S3.08 A Very Supernatural Christmas), or what was in my opinion an unmitigated disaster in the choice of casting Brock Kelly to play eighteen year old Dean Winchester in Supernatural S4.13 episode After School Special.
I have to say that some of my major apprehension was relieved when I found out that the casting director had chosen veteran television actor Chad Everett to step into the role of the older Dean Winchester. Everett, who is most well known for his role as Dr. Joe Gannon on the highly successful 1970’s hospital drama series Medical Center, was playing a medical drama heartthrob long before anyone ever heard of Dr. McDreamy so I knew he had the looks and physical build to pull it off. Yet I still had to wonder did he have what it took to step in to an older version of Dean Winchester and hold onto all the dynamics and physical presence that Jensen Ackles brought to the character?
The answer my dear readers, is in my opinion a great big YES! I am pleased to say that just like when Ridge Canipe was in the role, while Jensen Ackles might be away— the character of Dean Winchester was still very much in play. Chad Everett’s portrayal of Dean Winchester was nearly flawless and the best part of all was it never seemed like he was “forcing it”. I applaud the producer’s decision not to try and go the route of putting Ackles into heavy make up. Part of what made this version of Dean Winchester so believable was the use of an older actor who could more organically play the limitations and issues that happen to even the healthiest of men, as they get older. Not that I don’t think Jensen Ackles could have pulled it off, he’s got the talent to do it. It’s just that having Everett in the role gave it more realism and credibility.
I loved the way the older version of Dean interacted with Sam and Sam not treating him any different than normal. The brother dynamic was still very much in place and that is a testament not only to the talent of Chad Everett but also to the talent of Jared Padalecki as well. More than just good casting rested in making this plot line believable, it also relied on Jared Padalecki to create and carry the illusion too and he more than rose to the challenge of helping to bring the character of older Dean to life. Sam believed it was Dean so we believed it too.
The Curious Case of Dean Winchester was a very powerful episode and part of what made it work so well as such was the talent of Jim Beaver as Bobby Singer who is now trapped in a wheelchair. There’s a war going on and Bobby feels like he’s no longer able to be useful in it. Bobby wants out of that chair and back into action or he just wants to be dead, which is what prompts him to play the he-witch’s game. I have to give a big hand to Sera Gamble and Jenny Klein for using this episode as a way to tap back into the roots of Supernatural and the “family business” aspect. Bobby Singer is family, especially to Dean who sees the older hunter as his “other dad”, the one he can talk to and lean on. We see that the Winchesters are still as ever willing to sacrifice themselves for each other and now that willingness to sacrifice extends to Bobby Singer. I for one was glad to see that this strength of love was still very evident in both Dean and in Sam aw well who was ready to sacrifice part of himself to save Dean.
The heartfelt talk between Bobby and Dean at the end was also very pivotal and I believe meant to keep the continuity going. I have read comments from other viewers and from fans wondering why Dean didn’t say that both he and Sam couldn’t do this without Bobby. However I think that Dean was motivated to keep it more about himself because he is terrified of becoming his “future self” and having those events manifest. One thing I think he knows for sure is that without Bobby there to help Dean make the right decisions, keep him from wallowing in self pity and to help keep him “human”, Dean is going to end up just like he saw himself back in The End. If he ends up that way Dean is not going to be able to help Sam and both of them will lose the battle.
Also I think it still means that Dean is bound by John Winchester’s code of “chain of command”. Dean needs Bobby to be the leader. Sam might want to be out of “protected little brother” status, but Dean still needs the security of a familiar position in life to be able to carry on. With Sam not wanting to be “little brother to protect” all Dean has left is to be “the good son/soldier” and he looks to Bobby to help him fulfill that role. It gives Dean a measure of security and sense of self.
Speaking of great casting choices, Hal Oszan as Patrick was pretty close to perfection (absolute perfection would have been casting Michael Shanks) and the creation of this character by the writers was well done. Patrick was not some cut and dried villain. I liked that they chose to present him as having good and bad, that he was more human and not just another “evil monster of the week”.
To me Patrick embodied all that we find in a society where youth is everything and growing old is terrifying because it means we are seen as becoming useless and obsolete. Oszan handled the role of Patrick with the right balance of playfulness, vindictiveness and humanity to make the character work and not come across as too shallow or “villiany” and he had good working chemistry with everyone he dealt with.
This was another stand out episode for Jared Padalecki. As I said, part of making the character of older Dean work as well as it did rested with Padalecki. But what also rested with him was to show us a side of Sam that we rarely get a true glimpse of which is how self-contained and how cunning he really is. As an audience we are often caught up in the “little brother Sam” mindset as much as Dean is and so not only do the writers and Jared Padalecki have the challenge of showing Dean that Sam is more than just a baby brother to protect, they have to show this to the audience as well.
And it’s about time we got to actually see things going on with Sam rather than being kept in the dark about them. In The Curious Case of Dean Winchester we get to see that Sam is not just book smart, he is “military strategy” smart as well. Sam knew he couldn’t hide his emotions from Patrick, but knew that he could use this to his advantage to misdirect Patrick and cause him to make a mistake.
Overall, The Curious Case of Dean Winchester was a very richly layered and insightful episode. The characterizations were impressive and the casting choices matched that. I enjoyed Chad Everett’s Dean Winchester as much as I enjoy Jensen Ackles’ Dean Winchester. Both actors flowed together in the role in this episode and the transitions from one to the other were seamlessly done. But neither could have did it quite so well without the help of Jared Padalecki and Jim Beaver whose characters of Sam Winchester and Bobby Singer just saw Dean as Dean no matter what age he was.
One thing I really liked and it was just a small thing in the episode, was when at the end Dean, restored back to his thirty-year old self, put down the cheeseburger. In that small gesture we saw that Dean is thinking past being young and not living to grow older. That he thinks maybe there is some small glimmer of hope that he will live to be an old man and make it out of the effort to stop the apocalypse alive. If he makes it, Sam will make it too.
This coming week is Supernatural S5.08 Changing Channels, which select online journalist like myself got a chance to sneak preview and which airs on the CW this coming Thursday at 9PM EST right after a brand new episode of the hit CW series The Vampire Diaries. I’ll be giving my take on that to promote the episode and my thoughts on why it’s a very pivotal episode…without giving away too many spoilers that is so quit looking at me like that Dean!
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