The Retcon that isn't.... Profiling the Winchesters
Thoughts on 8.12 "As Time Goes By".....
I've seen a lot of flailing (thank you gaelicspirit for that phrase) about Henry Winchester and John Winchester and "How's your old man?" and wait, who said John had a stepfather? and the like, all arising from this episode. I admit that I had to ponder this myself. But I don't need to fanwank or handwave or do any real tweaking to accept this episode and its revelations on the Winchester family backstory. Here's why....
We know quite a bit, by now, of Mary's family, the Campbells. Hunters from a line that came over on the Mayflower. We've had cousins coming out of the woodwork, a sneaky grandfather, a rebellious daughter, a grandmother (Deanna) who was also a Hunter. (Do we even know Deanna's maiden name? I wonder if we will ever see her backstory... did Samuel train her, or was she from a line of Hunters too?) Lots of lore and history books stashed in the family safehouses. Lots of psychological tidbits about Mary, who somehow weathered the simultaneous and shocking murders of her parents and was still able to remain in her community of Lawrence, KS without raising too many eyebrows, or allowing the police to imprison John, the obvious suspect, for the murders -- so she must have been a smooth talker and a fast liar. She was able to present herself to John and the world as a young woman in love, a normal girl, a sweet and loving mother -- quite the chameleon, a very useful skill for undercover agents like Hunters. She carried a secret -- a huge and terrible secret that would have an impact on her entire family -- to her grave, and beyond, and I can believe that that was the start of Dean's guilt issues. Children are quite sensitive to their parents' moods and issues, even when parents are hiding them. And trust me, when there are family secrets and soul-crushing guilt carried by one or more parents, the children have an uncanny ability to pick up on that even if the issue is never, ever spoken of. So far the Campbell line and its legacies have been fairly thoroughly explored.
As for the Winchester side of the family, what did we know previous to this episode? John and his "old man" lived for at least part of John's life in Lawrence, and the old man was a mechanic who passed his skills on to his son. John enlisted, went to war, came back, fell in love, and married Mary, who bore him two sons and died tragically when the younger son was only six months old.
Seriously, that's pretty much IT. As near as I can tell, anything else we "know" about the Winchester line comes from inference (or fanfic).
I think that all the talk about retrofitting John's character to fit this new background story is understandable but ultimately unfounded. It's not retconning (actually changing information we have previously been given so it suits the storyline, like Sam's and Dean's "sacred annual pilgrimage to Vegas" horseshit). It's providing additional information that, up until now, has not been needed. I don't need to stretch to believe that "the old man" mentioned by the fellow in the diner was a stepfather. Why didn't we know that? Because it never came up. Wasn't necessary to the story. But now we know that John came from Normal, IL (and isn't that a piece of irony?), and when he was about six his dad disappeared forever. We can infer that his mother remarried at some point and they eventually moved to Lawrence. There's no reason John wouldn't call his stepfather Dad, especially if he harbored resentment towards his real father for abandoning him. As a side note, I think child Dean, the emotional sponge (see above), therefore came by his abandonment issues pretty honestly, probably even before Mary died.)
We can infer, based on Matt Cohen's portrayal of young John in "In the Beginning", that John was a sweet gentle soul before the death of his wife... or, more likely, he was showing that side of himself to the world to get along. He'd been to war, guys, and war changes a person. Most likely John didn't come back all naive, innocent and mellow, he just had learned to show that face to his family and friends, because soldier John might have scared the crap out of them.
What about all John's "daddy issues" that would have stemmed from this? Why didn't we know about them, about Dean's assertion that John hated his father for disappearing? Again, never came up. Also, those kind of issues don't always manifest in the adapted self, the self John had learned to present to get along. It's likely they wouldn't have surfaced until he had children of his own. "The Song Remains The Same" had an interesting exchange between Sam and his unknowing father, where young John basically told Sam that whoever raised him had a pretty shitty view of how to be a parent. And that right there is the first inkling of those daddy issues. Within that speech was an implied "I'm not gonna raise MY kids like that", which is quite possibly just bravado and wishful thinking. John's stepfather could have been a saint, raised him perfectly, but John would still always retain the scar of having been abandoned by his real father, and his inner child's feeling of not belonging in that family. He would have promised himself, he would have needed, to be a better man than his real father was to him. Cue another comment on Sam's and Dean's emotional sponginess...
One of the gifts Henry passed down to his son was his obvious intelligence. John's ability to see patterns/threads, his ability to think strategically, to do research, etc. would have required more than street smarts. And he passed those brains on to his own sons.
I could go on, but I think I've made my point. Think of this episode as at last filling in some information we never previously had, not as changing history.
The biggest problems I am left with? One, I share raloria's confusion at how the window of the Impala was so quickly repaired.
Two, in at least one long-ago episode we have been told there was an uncle, who put up a tombstone for Mary over an empty grave. That would imply that he was from Mary's side of the family (and may well have been a Hunter himself), but we were not shown any siblings of hers in "In The Beginning". Nor did we see any siblings of John's in "As Time Goes By", not even in a photograph. Doesn't mean there WERE no siblings for either of them (again, "didn't come up, wasn't necessary to this story".)
And three -- I've just managed to get myself a bit riled up over the misogyny inherent in these portrayals of the Winchester brothers' ancestry, on both sides. We know NOTHING, zip, nada, about John's mother, not even her name. Was she even alive when Henry said goodbye? What kind of mother was she? Did she know anything about her husband's extracurricular activities, did she suspect he was having an affair, was there a cloak of secrecy and questions-best-not-asked in John's early life as well? (See above on family secrecy issues.) And Deanna -- as I said, was she already a Hunter when she met Samuel? Where did she come from, what was her training? I suspect it was more than love that allowed her calm acceptance of their unconventional lifestyle. She seemed skilled but not particularly assertive, since she deferred to Samuel -- sign of the times? Dean and Sam had a fairly strong mother figure, although it was mostly her idealized memory that Dean clung to, and we have seen her background explored. We have seen way too much of Grandpa Campbell, and now we know something of Henry Winchester -- but the grandmothers? Afterthoughts. Not worth fleshing out.
So far. *snerk* Maybe it just hasn't been important yet to explore them.
I'd love to hear your considered comments in response to my pseudo-psychology. Have I had an impact on your perceptions?
I've seen a lot of flailing (thank you gaelicspirit for that phrase) about Henry Winchester and John Winchester and "How's your old man?" and wait, who said John had a stepfather? and the like, all arising from this episode. I admit that I had to ponder this myself. But I don't need to fanwank or handwave or do any real tweaking to accept this episode and its revelations on the Winchester family backstory. Here's why....
We know quite a bit, by now, of Mary's family, the Campbells. Hunters from a line that came over on the Mayflower. We've had cousins coming out of the woodwork, a sneaky grandfather, a rebellious daughter, a grandmother (Deanna) who was also a Hunter. (Do we even know Deanna's maiden name? I wonder if we will ever see her backstory... did Samuel train her, or was she from a line of Hunters too?) Lots of lore and history books stashed in the family safehouses. Lots of psychological tidbits about Mary, who somehow weathered the simultaneous and shocking murders of her parents and was still able to remain in her community of Lawrence, KS without raising too many eyebrows, or allowing the police to imprison John, the obvious suspect, for the murders -- so she must have been a smooth talker and a fast liar. She was able to present herself to John and the world as a young woman in love, a normal girl, a sweet and loving mother -- quite the chameleon, a very useful skill for undercover agents like Hunters. She carried a secret -- a huge and terrible secret that would have an impact on her entire family -- to her grave, and beyond, and I can believe that that was the start of Dean's guilt issues. Children are quite sensitive to their parents' moods and issues, even when parents are hiding them. And trust me, when there are family secrets and soul-crushing guilt carried by one or more parents, the children have an uncanny ability to pick up on that even if the issue is never, ever spoken of. So far the Campbell line and its legacies have been fairly thoroughly explored.
As for the Winchester side of the family, what did we know previous to this episode? John and his "old man" lived for at least part of John's life in Lawrence, and the old man was a mechanic who passed his skills on to his son. John enlisted, went to war, came back, fell in love, and married Mary, who bore him two sons and died tragically when the younger son was only six months old.
Seriously, that's pretty much IT. As near as I can tell, anything else we "know" about the Winchester line comes from inference (or fanfic).
I think that all the talk about retrofitting John's character to fit this new background story is understandable but ultimately unfounded. It's not retconning (actually changing information we have previously been given so it suits the storyline, like Sam's and Dean's "sacred annual pilgrimage to Vegas" horseshit). It's providing additional information that, up until now, has not been needed. I don't need to stretch to believe that "the old man" mentioned by the fellow in the diner was a stepfather. Why didn't we know that? Because it never came up. Wasn't necessary to the story. But now we know that John came from Normal, IL (and isn't that a piece of irony?), and when he was about six his dad disappeared forever. We can infer that his mother remarried at some point and they eventually moved to Lawrence. There's no reason John wouldn't call his stepfather Dad, especially if he harbored resentment towards his real father for abandoning him. As a side note, I think child Dean, the emotional sponge (see above), therefore came by his abandonment issues pretty honestly, probably even before Mary died.)
We can infer, based on Matt Cohen's portrayal of young John in "In the Beginning", that John was a sweet gentle soul before the death of his wife... or, more likely, he was showing that side of himself to the world to get along. He'd been to war, guys, and war changes a person. Most likely John didn't come back all naive, innocent and mellow, he just had learned to show that face to his family and friends, because soldier John might have scared the crap out of them.
What about all John's "daddy issues" that would have stemmed from this? Why didn't we know about them, about Dean's assertion that John hated his father for disappearing? Again, never came up. Also, those kind of issues don't always manifest in the adapted self, the self John had learned to present to get along. It's likely they wouldn't have surfaced until he had children of his own. "The Song Remains The Same" had an interesting exchange between Sam and his unknowing father, where young John basically told Sam that whoever raised him had a pretty shitty view of how to be a parent. And that right there is the first inkling of those daddy issues. Within that speech was an implied "I'm not gonna raise MY kids like that", which is quite possibly just bravado and wishful thinking. John's stepfather could have been a saint, raised him perfectly, but John would still always retain the scar of having been abandoned by his real father, and his inner child's feeling of not belonging in that family. He would have promised himself, he would have needed, to be a better man than his real father was to him. Cue another comment on Sam's and Dean's emotional sponginess...
One of the gifts Henry passed down to his son was his obvious intelligence. John's ability to see patterns/threads, his ability to think strategically, to do research, etc. would have required more than street smarts. And he passed those brains on to his own sons.
I could go on, but I think I've made my point. Think of this episode as at last filling in some information we never previously had, not as changing history.
The biggest problems I am left with? One, I share raloria's confusion at how the window of the Impala was so quickly repaired.
Two, in at least one long-ago episode we have been told there was an uncle, who put up a tombstone for Mary over an empty grave. That would imply that he was from Mary's side of the family (and may well have been a Hunter himself), but we were not shown any siblings of hers in "In The Beginning". Nor did we see any siblings of John's in "As Time Goes By", not even in a photograph. Doesn't mean there WERE no siblings for either of them (again, "didn't come up, wasn't necessary to this story".)
And three -- I've just managed to get myself a bit riled up over the misogyny inherent in these portrayals of the Winchester brothers' ancestry, on both sides. We know NOTHING, zip, nada, about John's mother, not even her name. Was she even alive when Henry said goodbye? What kind of mother was she? Did she know anything about her husband's extracurricular activities, did she suspect he was having an affair, was there a cloak of secrecy and questions-best-not-asked in John's early life as well? (See above on family secrecy issues.) And Deanna -- as I said, was she already a Hunter when she met Samuel? Where did she come from, what was her training? I suspect it was more than love that allowed her calm acceptance of their unconventional lifestyle. She seemed skilled but not particularly assertive, since she deferred to Samuel -- sign of the times? Dean and Sam had a fairly strong mother figure, although it was mostly her idealized memory that Dean clung to, and we have seen her background explored. We have seen way too much of Grandpa Campbell, and now we know something of Henry Winchester -- but the grandmothers? Afterthoughts. Not worth fleshing out.
So far. *snerk* Maybe it just hasn't been important yet to explore them.
I'd love to hear your considered comments in response to my pseudo-psychology. Have I had an impact on your perceptions?