The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth, by Elle2
 
For me the lure of "Supernatural" is the relationship between the brothers.  I love their bickering, their teasing, their teamwork and yes, even their occasional arguments.  While I’m not a fan of lies in life part of the joy of this show is that with few exceptions the lies are usually known to exist and thus become ‘things the other won’t discuss’ or in other cases are found out within half a season or so, with the exception of Sam’s knowledge of what happened to him as a baby; I think that has the record at about a year and a half before coming to light.  These two know each other so well that they usually know when the other is lying, or perhaps to put a gentler tone to it, ‘holding something back’.  Sometimes one of them pushes and at other times they let it alone and allow the other time to work it all out. 
 
Over the seasons we’ve watched various elements come into play that cause the brothers to open up to each other.  Sometimes it’s comical with darker undertones such as in "Playthings" and "Dream a Little Dream of Me" when drunken Sam reveals some of what’s going on inside his head first by making Dean promise to honor their father’s wishes and kill him if he goes dark side and second by asking Dean why he cares so little about himself regarding going to hell.  Sam reveals his fears about himself the first time and the second time he gets Dean to do some soul searching so that in the end Dean decides it’s time he works with Sam to find a way to save his soul from hell.


 
Grief and guilt are heavy emotions that cause each Winchester to open up, notably Dean.  In "Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things" as well as "Crossroad Blues" the case hits a little too close to home and Dean is able to put the pieces together and confess to Sam that he knows Dad is dead because of him and he’s sorry, sorry John did what he did, sorry Sam has lost his father because of him (Dean).
 
It’s little surprise that the episodes after "Crossroad Blues", "Croatoan" and "Hunted" have Dean dealing with those burdens in ways that we never saw in Season 1, now Dean is tired of the life they lead, how they never get thanked, they don’t get paid, all they get is grief; further Dean finally unloads the tremendous weight of the secret John told him at the end of "In My Time of Dying"…save Sam or kill him.  That weight doesn’t get any easier for in "Playthings" Sam lays a burden on Dean himself, honor dad’s wishes.  Interesting that drunken Sam opens up about his fears and extracts a promise from Dean but upon sobering up Sam stays the course and tells Dean he expects him to honor his promise, alcohol may have been the catalyst for the admission of the fears but the fears are real and Sam is no longer hiding from them.


 
Sam has a tendency to open up when either he’s faced with Dean as an immovable object like in "Home" when he knew Dean would not go back to Lawrence, Kansas unless Sam gave him something concrete or when he’s faced with more gentle coaxing from Dean, such as in "I Know What You Did Last Summer."  In that episode Dean makes it clear that he isn’t looking for an argument with Sam but he needs to know why Sam trusts Ruby so much.  Sam takes a moment to absorb that Dean deserves some answers and then provides most of them, even the part about having sex with a demon, but yet holds back the final part about drinking demon blood to access his powers.  I think Sam has always feared what Dean will think of him, feared that perhaps Dean will reject him and from that lack of confidence in Dean’s love for him he’s fallen into the trap of a lie.
 
One of the journeys Sam has been on is to realize that he’s accepted by Dean just as he is provided he tells the truth.  In "Sex and Violence" Dean spills the truth – courtesy of a siren – that what he needs most from Sam is the truth, the demon blood and the psychic crap aren’t what build a barrier between them, rather it’s the little things, the lies and the secrets.  Sam finally figured that out and there wasn’t a lie told by him in Season 5, nor was there one told by him in Season 6, not souled Sam that is.  
 
Dean for his part usually needs a little room to tell Sam what’s going on inside his head.  In "Shadow" we see Dean opening up about how much hunting with Sam has meant to him and how he wants them to be a family again; it’s a glimpse inside Dean’s psyche.  Sam uses that carefully when he needs to pry things out of Dean that Dean would rather not give, it’s in "Hunted" that Sam tells Dean to let him carry some of his burden because they are brothers; the result:  Dean reveals John’s final words.  In "Fresh Blood" Sam cracks Dean’s bravado regarding going after Gordon by reminding Dean that he (Sam) knows Dean, he’s been studying him since they were kids wanting to be just like his big brother.  The clincher is when Sam reveals to Dean that he just wants Dean to cut the crap and be his brother again just…just ‘cause; the result:  Dean stands down and they go after Gordon together.  We also see the brothers being brothers, it’s bittersweet as they repair the Impala together for while they are being brothers there is also the realization that Dean is teaching Sam some tools Sam will need in the very near future, a future soon to be without Dean.  We also see similar results when it’s Sam’s honest sorrow and confusion over Dean’s lack of concern for his impending descent to hell in DALDOM; the result:  Dean’s conscience conjures a dream during his dream root trip and Dean confronts some of his self-esteem issues and ends up telling Sam he doesn’t want to go to hell.  
 
Sam and Dean know how to get the other to tell the truth; sometimes that requires standing firm and refusing to give in until the other opens up, as seen in "Home".  Other times it requires one to step back and give the other some room, as Sam did for Dean at the end of "Wishful Thinking"; he knew Dean remembered hell, Dean admitted he remembered hell but he told Sam he would not talk about it.  Sam stepped back and allowed that to be how it stood between them.  As is the norm, when given some room, Dean will make a move to open up and we get one of the most emotional talks as the brothers share beers by the Impala.  I love that the conversation begins with Dean asking Sam if Sam was curious about Alistair’s words and Sam counters with the fact that he is curious but Dean said he wasn’t talking and Sam wasn’t going to push; Sam’s reward:  Dean shares it all.


 
While the brothers do at times keep secrets from each other and sometimes use those secrets to hurt the other they also will be very honest with each other in ways that heal; two quick examples are Dean’s phone conversation with Sam in "Scarecrow".  The brothers have separated angrily and appear ready and willing to keep it that way, however, when Dean and Sam are conversing about the hunt Dean has embarked upon Dean tells Sam that he admires him for his ability to stand up to dad.  That honest declaration by Dean goes a long way for at the end of the episode Sam is committed to seeing the journey through with Dean contending that all they have is each other.  
 
Another example is in "Point of No Return", Dean makes it clear that he intends to say yes to Michael but Sam is resolute in his faith in Dean to do the right thing; when push shoves, says Sam, Dean will do the right thing.  At the end of the episode, having already said yes Dean looks Sam square in the eyes and sees the absolute devastation in Sam’s eyes as his rock solid faith in Dean looks to be destroyed and it is that moment, that realization that Sam was utterly convinced that Dean wouldn’t let him down, that Dean changed course and took down Zachariah and emphatically put an exclamation point on his ‘no’ to Michael.


 
So, with all the lies and secrets, give and take between the brothers where do things go off the rails in Supernatural between them?  When the supernatural element gets involved, that’s when.  Whether it is demons or sirens, ghosts or fake gods, shapeshifters or angels, when these elements play in the mix things go badly for Sam and Dean.  While the brothers can and do hurt each other quite spectacularly they manage to find their way back rather quickly because the love that underscores the relationship and the trust and respect along with it are rarely severed.  However, when the supernatural plays in the mix things get distorted and heightened and that’s when real damage occurs.
 
For example, Dr. Ellicott took Sam’s frustration with Dean always doing exactly what their father told them to do and heightened it to the point where Sam fired first rock salt rounds at Dean and then a gun that he assumed was loaded with real bullets.  Clearly this isn’t what Sam in his right mind would do, sure he was frustrated and at times angry that Dean appeared to be an automaton with regard to their father’s wishes but what he most wanted was to understand why Dean didn’t question their father; something he learned later in "Something Wicked".  At the end of "Asylum" Sam tried to reassure Dean that he hadn’t meant what he said but Dean wasn’t up for caring and sharing, not surprising that things fell apart so quickly in "Scarecrow" and the brothers parted ways.  Note however, once the damage was done and a little time and space was achieved, honest emotions came through and Dean was able to heal the rift between them simply by admitting he admired Sam for standing up to dad.
 
When the Trickster tangled the brothers up so that they parodied the other in flashback recounts to Bobby it was again a manipulation of how each brother saw the other heightened to the ridiculous.  Sure Dean hits on available women but we’ve never seen him with someone who puked into her hands and then offered to kiss right after, nor have we seen Sam empathizing with a victim to the point of hugging that person and calling them a brave little soldier; the Trickster messed with the realism so much so that the brothers actually believed the other capable of damaging or stealing the other’s property.  Thank goodness Bobby was there to pull their heads together and by the end of the episode they each apologized to the other and were able to move ahead readily and get back to work.  Not surprising some of the Trickster’s methods were so successful since the brothers had just recovered from the events of Born Under a Bad Sign and both their heads were likely still more than slightly messed up thanks to Meg’s masterful manipulations.
 
"Sex and Violence" was an excellent example of how twisted the emotions can become when the boys are under the influence of something supernatural.  While Dean was honest in his desire to have Sam be his brother and not lie to him there’s no way he’d actually hold a knife to his brother’s throat, much less cut him.  Sam for his part was caught in a double whammy because not only did the siren have a hold of him but he was also drinking demon blood behind the scenes and thus Ruby’s machinations had a disastrous effect on Sam’s mind as he called Dean weak and frankly worthless to Sam’s purposes.  Sam in his right mind would never do that as seen by his utter remorse in "Unforgiven" as he remembered what his soulless counterpart had thought about family – family just gets in the way.  


 
Angels and demons have learned to play on the fears of the brothers as well as djinn and goddesses of truth.  Zachariah altered Dean’s phone message in "Lucifer Rising" because he knew Sam feared that Dean would reject him and thus when Sam heard ‘Dean’s’ message, Zachariah knew just which buttons to push; Ruby knew it too back in "No Rest for the Wicked" when she cajoled Sam by saying that Sam hated how Dean looked at him sometimes as if he was a sideshow freak.  Dean has had concerns and has teased Sam over the seasons but never had Dean looked at Sam as if he was a freak; rather Dean was always careful to have a smirk on his mouth, a twinkle in his eye and a ready quip to soften the words and to reassure Sam he was doing nothing more than teasing him to lighten the moment.  Instead Sam saw it as validation that he was a freak and that he was rejected by Dean, something he’d always feared was true; Ruby knew what she was doing.
 
The djinn in "Exile on Main Street" and Veritas in "You Can’t Handle the Truth" both played on fears that Dean had in his mind and thus twisted them to their own purposes.  The djinn wanted Dean to suffer and part of that suffering was tapping into Dean’s inner fear that he wasn’t worthy of an apple pie life, so deep was the desire and so great the fear that in the end Dean admitted the ‘truth’ about himself that he only sees himself as a killer and nothing more.  That isn’t the truth at all as we noted since "Dead In The Water" how good Dean is with children but Veritas latched onto Dean’s inner fears and distorted them so that Dean forgot all the good he’d done with Ben in the past year and instead deepened his depression.

 
 
Each brother is the other’s greatest weakness as well as their greatest strength.  The supernatural beings only see the weakness part of the relationship while they miss the solid foundation that it is build upon; they are brothers and no one hurts the one without dealing with the other.  We saw Dean pound Gordon for daring to shoot at Sam in "Hunted", refuse to stay in the fantasy world created by the djinn in "What Is and What Should Never Be" because he and Sam were not close.  We saw Sam in "The French Mistake" determined to find their way back to the ‘real world’ because in the alternate world they weren’t even brothers and then there’s Sam’s determination to rebuild himself in "The Man Who Knew Too Much" because he would not leave his brother alone out there.  Each brother has pulled himself back from certain death (Dean in WIAWSNB and Sam in TMWKTM) because of his love and loyalty for the other and each brother has sacrificed too much of himself for the other, Dean by selling his soul to bring Sam back to life and Sam for joining forces with the manipulative Ruby purely for revenge because of Dean’s death.
 
I’m not sure where Season 7 intends to take us but I predict there will be no more lies, no more secrets.  Sure Sam will have recurring issues with all his memories without a soul as well as in hell, Dean will continue to struggle with the losses, Lisa and Ben, Castiel’s friendship/trust and his time in hell but I predict the brothers will be together through it all.  The supernatural beings may make their attempts and some of them may be successful in the short run to mess with the brothers’ minds but Sam and Dean have been through so much and discovered so much about the other that it’s hard to believe there are any lies left to have.  
 
Dean clearly knows how awful soulless Sam was having been at the direct receiving end of some of his actions, or inaction, and Sam has seen what Dean can do when he’s in full-on torturer mode.  While Sam may discover some of those darker moments himself; just as Dean has relived some of his darker moments through torturing Alistair in OTHOAP and then the various demons in "Let It Bleed" clearly there is no ‘secret’ between the two regarding the depths each brother has been to.  Dean made it clear in his graveside declaration that all the garbage in the past is just that, past; here forward it’s a clean slate; Sam on demon blood, Sam without a soul are not the Sam that stands beside him in the present and he holds no judgments.  Sam offered to give Dean a rest from the demon torture, clearly showing his ability and willingness to torture demons without the fortitude of demon blood so there is acceptance of who Dean is and what Dean has done.
 
The supernatural will play and manipulate the brothers and that is good times for us the viewers; however, the direct actions of either brother to lie to the other appear to be done and over with.  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are the order for Season 7 – they’ll have only each other to depend on – that sounds like good times to me.
 
Thanks for reading, Elle2