#spn 4.13

[zepskies]

Hello dear friend, tofics here! 🥰 (Will Tumblr ever allow to send asks from a sideblog? Who knows!) Thank you for the tag in WIP tag game! I'll definitely be participating later, but just had to drop by first and ask about that Dean WIP? 👀 'Don't You Forget About Me' is definitely a very intriguing title! Sounds like perhaps angst will be involved? 👀👀 Must. Know. More. Please! 😄💕

Hello my friend! Yes I got your message. 😘 You're very welcome, and I'm excited to see what you've got in store in your WIP bank!

But thank you for asking about Don't You Forget About Me (Dean Winchester x Reader).

It's an idea I've had for years, actually, but have never gotten around to actually writing it. It's based on the episode 4.13: After School Special, but with a Breakfast Club twist. (If you haven't seen that 80s movie, do yourself a favor! The title of the WIP is from the song played at the end, by Simple Minds.)

Here's some more detail:

Don’t You Forget About Me

Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader || Teen!Dean x Teen!Reader

Summary: 1997. Fairfax, Indiana. Pullman High School. Somehow you find yourself in detention with Dean Winchester, the new kid at school who wears a leather jacket and a bad boy smile better than John Bender ever did.

This one is also outlined but not written yet. I'm eyeballs deep on Lost on You right now, but stay tuned!~ 😅💜

[scoobydoodean]

…I hate “After School Special”.

[sammy-the-boyking]

can't watch after school special without feeling a little ill tbh. "you took an interest in me when no one else did. that matters, so thank you" "the only thing that really matters is that you're happy. are you happy sam?" okay! gonna jump off a bridge but it's fine

[lower-the-volume]

after school special

[ballsdeepinturbohell]

SPN 4.13 - After School Special

“The whistle makes me their god”

I cannot believe the first thing Dean does as a teacher is hit a student lmfao 😭

I love episodes where we get to see young Sam and Dean. They casted them so well :,)

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, I love their dynamic so much. They’re foils in many ways, but their love for each other is what keeps them together.

[castiellesbian]

Cathryn Humphris:

1.20 Dead Man's Blood (with John Shiban)

2.07 The Usual Suspects

2.14 Born Under a Bad Sign

3.05 Bedtime Stories

3.10 Dream a Little Dream of Me (with Sera Gamble)

4.04 Metamorphosis

4.14 Sex and Violence

Andrew Dabb (episodes co-written with Loflin are labeled with*):

4.06 Yellow Fever*

4.13 After School Special*

4.19 Jump the Shark*

5.06 I Believe the Children Are Our Future*

5.11 Sam, Interrupted*

5.16 Dark Side of the Moon*

5.19 Hammer of the Gods*

6.04 Weekend at Bobby's*

6.07 Family Matters*

6.13 Unforgiven*

6.18 Frontierland*

7.03 The Girl Next Door*

7.08 Season Seven, Time for a Wedding!*

7.14 Plucky Pennywhistle's Magic Menagerie*

7.22 There Will Be Blood*

8.02 What's Up, Tiger Mommy?*

8.08 Hunteri Heroici

8.14 Trial and Error

8.22 Clip Show

9.02 Devil May Care

9.10 Road Trip

9.20 Bloodlines

9.22 Stairway to Heaven

10.02 Reichenbach

10.09 The Things We Left Behind

10.17 Inside Man

10.22 The Prisoner

11.02 Form and Void

11.10 The Devil in the Details

11.15 Beyond the Mat (with John Bring)

11.17 Red Meat (with Robert Berens)

11.23 Alpha and Omega

12.01 Keep Calm and Carry On

12.09 First Blood

12.23 All Along the Watchtower

13.01 Lost and Found

13.10 Wayward Sisters (with Robert Berens)

13.15 A Most Holy Man (with Robert Singer)

13.23 Let the Good Times Roll

14.01 Stranger in a Strange Land

14.13 Lebanon (with Meredith Glynn)

14.20 Moriah

15.01 Back and to the Future

15.10 The Heroes' Journey

15.20 Carry On

[jellybracelet]

[peach-coke]

“I'm gonna rip his lungs out!” ➤ Whumptober 2021 || No.3 – STICKS AND STONES MAY BREAK MY BONES BUT… | "Who did this to you?"

[spngeorg]

Episode 73: 4.13 After School Special

Poor Sam thought he completely understood the situation when he was a freshman in high school, but fifteen years later from an adult perspective things look very, very different. And doesn’t this just define a big part of Sam? This burden of guilt he carries for so many things that aren’t really his fault, yet he still feels responsible for? Owwww.

Granted, this theme pretty much sums up the mytharc plot of s4, too, from both Sam and Dean’s perspectives-- not having the full story, believing they know the right thing from Sam’s putting his trust in Ruby in their mission to kill Lilith, and Dean not having the full story of what’s going on with Sam and assuming they’re on the same page...

And Dean in this episode, what we learn about him on the cusp of adulthood gives us a lot of insight into the mask of Performing Dean, his ability to fit himself into a situation as both a shield and a tool to get even a little of what he needs. It’s just sad all around. :(

But that’s why we watch this show. Bring on the suffering!

Supplemental materials for this week’s episode:

The Superwiki page for this episode

My tag for this episode

But especially these posts:

headcanons about the wonky timeline

More, slightly older headcanons about the wonky timeline

technically about s12 (and about four other episodes because meta), but very much about Performing Dean in this episode too

rewatch notes from June 2019

rewatch notes from April 2017

Story Arena and casting sides for Amanda, Dirk McGregor Senior, Mr. Wyatt, April, and young Dean

And yet another CW promo video

Listen now on AnchorFM, or wherever you enjoy podcasts!

[foxthefanboi]

make me choose: @righteoussoldier​ asked: dean or sam

Sam's got a darkness in him. I'm not saying he don't. But he's got a hell of a lot of good in him, too.

[blowjob-horseguy]

Everybody talking about deancas this and deancas that how come no one's talking about the original boy best friends?

Sam and Barry from After-school special

[scoobydoodean]

One thing that bugs me about after school special is that the dude they casted for "teen" Dean is literally a decade older than young Sam. He was closer in age to Jensen than to Colin. Normally I wouldn’t gaf (none of the younger Dean actors ever hit the mark for me so it is what it is), but combined with the episode’s complete lack of empathy for his situation as a parentified child, it feels more insidious. It frames him as way older than he really is, and in a way normalizes his parentification. If they had casted an actual 16 year old, their dynamic would look a lot more honest to what it truly was.

You know I'm don't think I've even fully worked out my frustrations about After School Special yet. I had to stop thinking about it last night because it was 3AM and I had to go to bed (also for more context, see posts I reblogged from Leyla last night jshdbfjhsbdfh).

This episode is just so... messy. It tries to say too many things, it says some absolutely stupid things and some okay things, and in other places, the narrative isn't clear (or maybe Dabb and Loflin are at war with one another on the subject of Dean—who knows). I find some of my frustrations and why I have those frustrations... difficult to explain in words.

That is a good point about the casting of Brock. Mind you—I have nothing against the actor here. I actually have always thought Brock did a great job copying Dean's mannerisms and way of speaking (I assume Jensen worked with him during the episode) and I think he does his best with what he's given and the role he's expected to play. The writing itself isn't his fault, of course.

From a height perspective, they wanted to intentionally contrast Dean with Sam all episode, who's being mocked by Dirk (who's paralleled with Dean and is literally our only window into sympathy toward parentified children which... isn't much at all) for being shorter than him, and I think that's part of why they chose someone much older and taller than Collin Ford.

I also don't think we're necessarily meant to dismiss the knowledge that Sam is much taller than Dean as an adult, but the thing is, if they wanted me to buy into the idea that everyone in After School Special is a bully (except maybe Barry), they did a terrible job. Sam hardly comes off as a bully—all he does is defend himself from someone who used their pain as an excuse to make his and other people's lives miserable (we get better evidence of bully!sam in their previous episode—"Yellow Fever"—actually). Is that what Dabb and/or Loflin think of Dean? That he's made Sam miserable? How? By *looks at notes* not obeying his every whim and following him around like an obedient dog, or perhaps by being dead? Hm. Except Dean doesn't even make Sam miserable in this episode (unless making jokes Sam doesn't find funny counts). Sam even picked the case they're on—Dean doesn't actually really want to go to their old school. Young Dean is reiterating that he'll look out for young Sam the entire episode.

I do think people are right when they say Dean's height (and much older appearance) are meant to reflect how Sam perceived him (After School Special is nearly fully from Sam's POV—Dean is more of a plot device than anything). Young Dean is immediately popular in school. He's handsome and makes the other kids his age laugh from the moment he enters the classroom. He immediately catches the eye of popular girls, and Barry and Sam have an exchange about it.

BARRY That's your brother with Amanda Heckerling? He's cool. YOUNG SAM Yeah. He thinks so.

Sam's paper about their werewolf hunt is, by the teacher's recounting, one where Dean shines the brightest—not Sam. He's the first thing that catches Wyatt's attention. What catches his attention second is John dragging them everywhere. Sam doesn't really factor in at all.

MR. WYATT I'm not flunking you. I'm giving you an "A." Now, aside from the werewolf, is that really how you'd describe your family? YOUNG SAM Yeah. MR. WYATT Well, your brother is quite a character. And your father -- he seems, uh, driven.

This also isn't a bad nugget about Sam, in an episode that comes right after 4.12 which is also to an extent about the desire for fame and attention and the old school versus the new school (where Sam represents the hot, new, popular magic that embraces demonic forces and is pushing out the old ways of doing things). I said 4.13 is also about envy—many of the murders are driven by projections on others. Dirk perceived Sam and Dean as "Jocks... you popular kids... you always thought you were better than everybody else." When that wasn't them at all. I've said that Sam is jealous of Dean (his bravery in combat despite zero powers, in previous seasons—his intelligence and way with people, his title as "the righteous man" while Sam is "the boy with the demon blood"). Dirk was projecting his resentments onto people they didn't apply to as a function of resentment and jealousy from the superiority he himself ultimately perceived them to possess, and that's much more reminiscent of Sam this season (we're about to see him project his insecurities on Dean and become the Big Bad Bully in the next episode—4.14):

OK, fine. You know why I didn't tell you about Ruby, and how we're hunting down Lilith? Because you're too weak to go after her, Dean. You're holding me back. I'm a better hunter than you are. Stronger, smarter. I can take out demons you're too scared to go near. [...] You're too busy sitting around feeling sorry for yourself. Whining about all the souls you tortured in hell. Boo hoo.

For Sam, After School Special isn't a terrible episode. It's just that it almost fully treats Dean as a cartoonish plot device and the neckbeard-type loathing for him almost seeps off the page even with all the nods to performing Dean you could ever want. In After School Special, Dean seems more unlike himself than any episode ever in the history of Supernatural up to this point. I do actually kind of think Dabb took one look at Dean when he came in in season 4 and decided he's a bully because he's popular based on nothing—however much he pretends he's only saying something else... and honestly I don't think he ever really got over it.

[sammyblep]

sam being a genuinely creative soul from the start... his teacher saying he could make it as a writer, his sketches scribbled on motel sketchpads, his forays into magic and theater...

[acklest]

Versatile Gifs for all your reaction gif needs.

[sasomienspegel]

“After School Special”

[mittensmorgul]

black-eyedbitch

  Hi! Sorry, struggling with basic math over here....

I have problems with the fact that the flashbacks in After School Special allegedly took place in 1997 simply because...

I have problems with the fact that the flashbacks in After School Special allegedly took place in 1997 simply because there is a banner in the high school that says “class of 1997” which, if this is supposed to be occurring in the fall, would make it 1996.

(hi hi, I went and copied the rest of your comment here since it’s only tangentially related to the other long post, and merits its own post...)

I’ve written about this so many, and some of it was back before the era where I tried to tag stuff, or ended up in posts with too many episodes to tag them all...

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/159198977940/re-the-post-about-dean-and-sam-not-seeing-much

this one is long, but it mentions one theory I’ve had about why Dean might still be at school despite being almost 19:

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/116419056090/if-dean-is-so-intelligent-why-did-he-ever-get

Which is... Dean HAD graduated/gotten his GED/lied about his age being a year younger because John ordered him to keep an eye on Sam... We know canonically that Dean and John have left Sam alone for longer periods of time even before this incident in 4.13 (thanks 11.08!) But it also seemed to be at a time of the year when Sam wasn’t enrolled in school, merely locked up in that motel room by himself.

Heck it could be that Sam finally argued John into LETTING him enroll in high school, and for the first few months one of his conditions was that Dean had to go with him to make sure he was safe. It would also explain Dean’s flippant attitude toward class (been there, done that, got a GED), AND the gross-for-an-adult but possibly what 18-year-old Dean would’ve been concerned about at the school: the guess which cheerleaders are legal comment.

But... I’m completely willing to handwave dates like this where it’s convenient. We’ve got all sorts of timeline glitches all over the place that if you think too hard about them, stuff starts to fall apart...

The writers seem to be particularly confused about High School in general, too... Starting with your suggestion to handwave it as October 1996 instead of October 1997 could work, and it would reduce the Oopsie Factor down to a singular point of error: the title banner informing us it’s November 1997. As you said, everything else in the episode is either unstated, or seems to imply it’s actually November 1996 (the banner).

But if that was the case, that would mean that Sam was... actually the age to be in 8th grade. So how how how would he have been in 9th grade, in high school, at that time? But... that might actually fit the timeline better. He did seem... young for high school, which fits because Colin Ford was TWELVE when he filmed that episode.

So what’s a 12-year-old with an arguably spotty educational record (moving around every few weeks doesn’t help one get a consistent education) doing enrolled in 9th grade? (when the vast majority of students begin 9th grade as 14-year-olds in the US?) (with the caveat he was portraying Sam Winchester, who would’ve canonically been 13 at the time if it was November 1996). That theory honestly lends a LOT of credit to both Sam’s intellect (he’s able to keep up with course work designed for students a year older who’ve had a consistent education to that point, and even excel at it), and his dedication to his education. Because hooboy, for him to have been pushing himself like that meant he was maintaining a grade-appropriate curriculum for himself despite all the moving around they did.

AT AGE 13.

Without either of his “parental figures” encouraging and guiding him through that.

Which, if that’s actually the case, goes a long way toward proving just how dedicated Sam was to getting out of the life. He wasn’t just “running away from something,” but actively engaged in pursuing something else without John or Dean’s knowledge, you know?  Reframing his running away from Flagstaff as something more than just holing up in that trailer with a strange dog and living off funyuns and mr. pibb... and that was framed as just one incident of Sam’s “escaping his life” with the implication that he’s actually had this plan to eventually get out for a really long time...

Because of 11.08, when he abandoned his imaginary friend and was THRILLED to be called into a hunt with John and Dean, that conviction that he would be a hunter lasted less than a year or two before he was actively pushing himself to find another way for himself, and it’s possible he decided that getting an education was the most direct way out of the hunting life.

I always like to imagine that Bobby had a hand in this pursuit for him, since we know he had spent time alone at Bobby’s in 1995 while Dean was at Sonny’s (thanks, 9.07!), which would’ve been within the year or so prior to the events of 4.13. It could be Bobby that guided him to that course of action, since we know Bobby himself was highly intelligent, multilingual, and clearly at least very well self-educated, even if not traditionally educated... that would’ve made him the perfect person to have encouraged Sam to pursue a similar path for himself...

Or it could’ve been as simple as John demanding that if Sam wanted to enroll in school, he had to enroll in the same school Dean was attending, for whatever reason... convenience, so they could keep an eye on each other (or Dean could keep an eye on Sam...), or whatever.

But again, in the end, aside from these assumptions based on the handwaviness of any of these potential scenarios, and what they might suggest about the characters, the actual dates of these events doesn’t really affect canon. Some are just more ;_; than others, you know?