Bashing of John Winchester
John also did something he couldn’t do with Sam and Dean he shielded Adam from everything involved with hunting. When Adam was born Sam and Dean were still in his care and he was still obsessed with finding the thing that killed Mary. Since Adam had a mother who was able to care for him and they were both completely unaware of the supernatural the best thing John did was leave them to their lives which were uncomplicated by his. Does anyone really believe John would have given up on hunting for Mary’s killer, taken Sam and Dean and moved in with Kate and raised his three sons together? I don’t. (And we wouldn’t have a show either…)
Season 5 gave us another appearance of the younger John Winchester (wonderfully portrayed by Matt Cohen) and he is still just as positive and loving as when we saw him back in In The Beginning. When we meet him here he is an earnest young husband desperate to secure employment, at the same time he is welcoming to two strangers that appear at his and Mary’s doorstep and invites them unhesitatingly inside to join them for dinner upon learning they’re Mary’s ‘cousins’. John prior to hunting was loving, open to meeting new people and caring. Upon being thrust into the world of hunting he immediately takes charge when necessary (“If I have to pull this car over…â€) and then upon realizing that others are better equipped to handle the situation he steps up to the challenge and participates in all attempts to protect the group.
John and Sam have another discussion of sons and fathers and this time it is John who is angry, angry that Sam’s father would expose his son to such danger. Angry that Sam’s father didn’t protect his son because that’s what fathers are for. Does that bash the character of John Winchester (never mind it is ‘the’ John Winchester doing the ‘bashing’) or is it simply the real John Winchester, prior to hunting, prior to the deep grief of losing his beloved wife and living forever in fear that his sons would be targets as well (we know from IMTOD that John knew the truth about Sam, had known for a long time, how long we don’t know) trying to cope with the tragic circumstances of his life.
We know that Mary’s parents were killed back in 1973. We have no mention of John’s parents and it appears from his ability to disappear after the fire of 1983 that there was little support system for this young father of two. The Song Remains the Same gives us a wonderful bit of insight into John Winchester akin to Dean’s reveal to Sam in Bugs that John would drive out to Stanford every chance he could just to check on Sam, make sure he was safe (and allow his youngest son the chance to have the normal life he wanted). We see again, by going back through time, a glimpse of that John Winchester who put $100 in a bank account each month for his sons’ future education the day they were born. We see John as loving husband and father as he stands with Mary in the nursery, gently rubbing her expanding belly as they eagerly await their first child’s birth.
So where is the idea that John Winchester has been bashed? Is it because Dean in Jump the Shark was so disillusioned that his father took Adam to baseball games on his birthday but never did that with him? Is it because Dean at the end of Jump the Shark told Sam that he was more like their father than he (Dean) could ever be and then told Sam to take that anyway he wanted when Sam accepted it as a compliment. Has John Winchester been bashed because Dean has called or implied that he was a dead-beat dad on numerous occasions? I say no. I say the ‘dead-beat dad’ comments are more indicative of Dean’s frame of mind than of anything to do with John Winchester.
The dead beat-dad comments come from Dean each time and when they do come it is more to show how far Dean has fallen in his despair as he carries the burdens he carries. The Dean who once awoke to Sam talking on the phone with Dad, who neither son had had contact with for many months, and then instantly fell into the role of soldier following orders is long gone in Season 5. Season 5 Dean has experienced the death of his father to save his (Dean’s) life and carried that heavy burden at the same time as carrying the secret and final words John ever spoke to him, (“I wish to God he’d never opened his mouth.†– Hunted). Dean has also been shaken to realize that for all he believed he knew his father better than anyone John had managed to keep large parts of his life a secret, Adam and Kate Milligan, The Roadhouse and the Harvelles, his secret storage container and likely to Dean’s mind even more.
Dean’s descent into depression as he sees himself as unimportant to Sam (Dark Side of the Moon) as well as his perception of being let down in his last, desperate plea to God gives him no place left to go so he lashes out at the one person he’d always held to a high standard, always followed without question, John. Dean calling John a dead-beat dad doesn’t make John so; it just shows Dean’s utter misery.
Dark Side of the Moon showed us aspects of John we knew from Season 1: he drank too much, we knew that in The Pilot; he expected Dean to look after Sam and likely gave him a verbal lashing upon learning Sam had run away; we knew of those expectations back in Something Wicked. We learn new information which is that John and Mary had fought and John had left the house but we also knew back in The Pilot that John and Mary were certainly loving and caring of each other and their sons so whatever fight they’d had was obviously put to rest.
Did John Winchester get bashed in later seasons? I say no. In my opinion John became even more real as a character in Seasons 4 and 5. I find it highly plausible that he found comfort in the arms of a woman and it is to his credit that he did what he did do for Adam Milligan based upon his life; he led an extreme life to say the least.
I love that John Winchester is expanded as a character both in In the Beginning and The Song Remains the Same. While Dean is descending it despair, Sam is able to find peace with his father and is able to make peace with his father:
Sam: “He was trying. He died trying. Believe me. I used to be mad at him. I-I mean, I used to… I used to hate the guy. But now I-I… I get it. He was…just doing the best he could. And he was trying to keep it together in—in—in this impossible situation. See… My mom, um… She was amazing, beautiful, and she was the love of his life. And she got killed. And…I think he would have gone crazy if he didn’t do something. Truth is, um, my dad died before I got to tell him that I understand why he did what he did. And I forgive him for what it did to us. I do. And I just—I love him.â€
Talk about role reversal.
Oh, yeah, two final thoughts…first, what Cupid said about John and Mary hating each other…la, la, la, la, I can’t hear you! I choose to pretend that never happened. Second, I doubt I’ll ever learn (at least not likely in Season 6 but if there’s a season 7, it’s on my wish list) why is it that John could hear Michael’s voice and say yes to being the archangel’s host when Dean couldn’t hear Castiel until he took a vessel. Clearly no one else that we’ve seen (aside from Jimmy in The Rapture) has been able to ‘hear’ the voice of an angel, unless you include Pamela but she was summoning Castiel in a séance (and we know how that ended). John has something special that allowed him to hear Michael while Michael was still in angelic form, I’m hoping one day to learn what and how.
Thanks for reading, Elle2
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Actually Nick was also able to hear Lucifer without a vessel, Lucifer created the illusion of Nick’s wife, but it was not a vessel.
I totally agree with your analysis that John was not bashed in the seasons after JDM left. The actions that made John look bad happened in season 1 especially Something Wicked and Faith. Putting the responsibility of saving or killing Sam on Dean also added to the equation. But showing us John before Mary’s death helped deepen and explain the character.
I also find it interesting that in many parts of fandom, when Sam complained about John and Dean defended him, the general consensus was that Sam was whining and Dean was right. As soon as Dean decides that John is a schmuck and Sam defends John, fandom agrees with Dean. It has bothered me that so much of fandom’s view of John revolves around not what he did, but how it affected Dean.
I have always viewed John as being a good man, but after the trauma of Mary’s death he lacked the resources to be a good father. He did an enormous amount of damage to both his sons, but he did the best he knew how.
John is complex, complicated and an enigma. He is probably unknowable due to the unavailability of JDM, although I would love for the writers to come up with a way to bring back Matt Cohen to play John, not as the dewey eyed boy that Mary married, but as the man who experienced life after Mary’s death. I would dearly love to see the THREE Winchester men that we knew in season one meet and get to know each other. Sadly doing so probably would be a jump the shark moment.
Actually, Castiel originally thought that Dean would be able to hear him in his natural voice, I guess because he pulled him out of hell, which is why he tried to contact him those two times. Why Dean didn’t understand is a good question.
Great analysis elle2. And you are right, Dean had always defended his father and didn’t start talking about him as a dead beat dad until Season 4, when he was dealing with his own PTSD and sinking into the throes of depression. With Dean telling Sam that he is more like John than he will ever be, in Dean’s mind it may be true, but I also believe that Dean is a lot like his father as well. He has the same never die attitude, the desire to help others, the skills of a hunter. Who was it that told him he was a better hunter than his father. I know Bobby told Dean he was a better man that John, but didn’t somebody also tell him that in regards to hunting?
So, Dean should be proud of his father and proud that he carries many of his traits. I hope that after living a “normal life” for a year and having the experience of being a father, that Dean will come once again to truly appreciate everything that his father did for him and realize his Dad did the best he could and that he wasn’t really a ‘dead beat’ in the worst of terms and that he will come to respect and look at John in a better light.
Great stuff, elle2. I’m glad to see the “rehab” of John, like the domestication of the dog, continue unabated. It’s very movie-of-the-week to assume that after the death of the love of your life, especially in that horrific way, and with young children to take care of that a parent will go all Ned Flanders and be the very model of a Benjamin Spock relationship.
What makes the show real is that the heroes ARE flawed. John wasn’t perfect, and Dean and Sam aren’t either. They’re real, and every couple (except the Flandereses) goes through problems and we get a glimpse of that in season five.
As for Cupid, I chalk that up to angel propaganda.
Wonderfully told elle2.
During the beginning of Season 1 I kept wondering with every new episode “Are they going to find their dad this time?” And when he finally appeared and gave Dean that huge hug and Sam that loving look I was a fan of John Winchester. Nothing can change that anymore. (Dany, Julie do you hear me?)
I always thought that his actions are very logical except the one where he asked Dean to kill Sam if necessary without explaining why.
Who should he have left the boys with after Mary was gone. Even if he would have stayed and worked as a mechanic. They both very likely would have ended up like they did anyways. Meaning Dean taking care of his little brother while dad was working.
We also know that every now and then he even dropped the boys of at a friends place while he was gone. They even stayed with the Harvells for a while but they were to young to remember that.
John Winchester tried to be a good father and do right by his sons. That is a lot more than you can say about some other fathers.
Linda H, Evelyn, Randal and Yirabah,
Thanks for the wonderful comments.
Linda, I had forgotten about the fact that Lucifer appeared to Sam via an ‘image’ as well as in a dream. Perhaps it was the dream’walking’ that allowed Sam to hear. Still not sure about John though. Either way, I think it has something to do with the bloodline aspect. Fun to ponder. 🙂
John is a complex man and that’s why I love the character, as Randal pointed out, he’s human, very human, exactly because of his flaws (as well as Dean’s and Sam’s)
Evelyn, I’m hoping to see quite a bit of a change in Dean after a year of ‘the apple pie life’ it will be an interesting perspective for his character to carry on and very likely we’ll see the very tensions that John dealt with regarding Adam and Kate Milligan, how to hunt and how to be involved.
Dean is a lot like John (just as Sam is) and Bobby showed great insight when he recognized John’s inflexibility regarding Sam (If you’re going to go, stay gone…something like that) wasn’t just inflexibility as it was fear, the inability to let go…we saw that with Bobby’s words to Dean in Lucifer Rising and followed up on in Two Minutes to Midnight, what are you afraid of, Dean, losing, or losing Sam? Excellent question.
Randal, as usual you cut through the chatter and get to the heart of the matter…Ned Flanders indeed (although apparently that’s what Ma and Pa Campbell thought of him…guess he showed them. Wonder what the new season will bring to the table on that.
Yirabah, Like you, I am a fan of John Winchester like I am a fan of all the Winchesters (and Campbells…at least the ones I’ve ‘met’ thus far). I guess the only reason I can come up with with regards to John not telling Dean everything he knew at the end of IMTOD is that yellow eyes was waiting to collect his ticket and there was only a short amount of time to do what needed to be done…you know, that and by leaving it a secret we got four more seasons out of the whole thing but other than that… 😉
Thanks for all the great comments…only five and a half weeks to go…wow!
MMMMhhh
About those five and a half weeks
http://de.tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=XAS1fUiO8rAN3YKdu3mSvIh4l5k2TGxc
http://de.tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=XAS1fUiO8rDweP%2F2y2wN1oh4l5k2TGxc
I’ve always respected John, even when I didn’t particularly like him ( yes, mainly in Faith when he didn’t show up when Dean was dying)because I felt there was so much more to the character than we’ve ever seen. After all that he’d been through, he did the best he could to raise his boys & thought he was doing the right thing. Sure, he could have done things differently & maybe better, but always took responsibility for his actions, right or wrong. I cringed every time Dean called him a deadbeat dad, but I agree that was Dean’s own depression & PTSD talking, not how Dean actually felt deep down. And that speech of Sam’s in The Song Remains the Same…loved it! I hope we get to learn more of John’s story, whether he’s portrayed by JDM or Matt Cohen.
Elle2, so sorry, I’m late to this great article!
I agree with your assessment that JOhn was not bashed (no idea where that came from). To my mind it was a healthy development for Dean to see that his father was flawed, too, and that he became a bit more independent from this man who had been a kind of icon for Dean all his life, just as Sam managed to see some of the good sides of his father.
I think both brothers needed that to be able to move on and to grow. As Shakespeare said ‘Nothing is good or bad, yet thinking makes it so’, John wasn’t entirely good or bad, but simply human – flawed, wounded, trying… Even I have begun to look at John winchester with a more benevolent eye (I used to only want to slap him, but that changed to a more empathetic view). I would like to see him again in the upcoming season, in a flashback or where ever…
Thank you for this article that needed a lot of work, I’m sure! Jas
Hi, BagginsDVM and Jas!
Glad you liked the article. John is a character I hope to see and learn more about. I give the SPN writers credit, they’ve managed to add to the character over the seasons with only two appearances of the characters since the end of Season 2.
Just watched Dead Man’s Blood last night and was reminded of just how alone John was after Nov 2 1983 when he’s talking to Sam and Dean and telling them that they are all he’s got in the world…sheesh, how lonely he must have been.
I’d like to know what it is about his bloodline that lets Michael take him, Adam and Dean (well, never Dean but he wanted to) as vessels and what happened to his family that he had no one to support him.
I’m thinking Season 6 is likely to be light on those details (based entirely on one or two comments made about what to look for in Season 6 and it’s more Mary’s side than John’s) but perhaps Season 7 will delve into the Winchester side…one can always hope!
Thanks for the comments