Title What Is and What Sould Never Be
Episode # Season 2, Episode 20
First aired May 3, 2007
Directed by Eric Kripke
Written by Raelle Tucker
Outline After Dean is attacked by a djinn, he wakes up in a world where he is no longer a hunter.
Monster Djinn/Genie
Location(s) Joliet, Illinois; Lawrence Kansas.
Timeline (AU-December 5, 2007)
Dean is attacked by a Djinn... and finds himself in a new reality where his mother is still alive and a mysterious woman holds the key to everything.
Music
* What
a Wonderful World by The Ramones
* Saturday Night Special by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Trivia
The
idea for Sam to not know about hunting and think that Dean has
lost his mind came from the original draft of the "Pilot"
episode. In the original script, Dean was a hunter because of
a feeling that something supernatural had killed his father when
he was young and Sam had long ago estranged himself from the family.
The movie on Dean's TV when he wakes up is From Hell It Came (1957).
In the alternate
reality, Dean wears a gold chain with a pendant rather than his
amulet.
At the beginning of the episode, Dean asks Sam if he has "ditched
the plates" referring to the Imapla's license plates (a necessity
as they know the FBI are tracking them after the events of 2.19
Folsom Prison Blues (episode)). During the episode we see the
usual plates KAZ 2Y5 have been replaced in the real world with
CNK 80Q3(Ohio plates) and in Dean's fantasy with RMD 5H2(Kansas
plates)
The scene where Sam surprises Dean as he breaks into the house,
and they wrestle, is a mirror of the same events in the 1.01 Pilot
(episode), they even have the same conversation.
When Dean wakes up in the alternate reality and calls Sam, there
is part of a saved text message visible on his phone which reads
which may be to or from Christopher Cooper: Hey Dude…How
are you doing man?I’m pretty darn good myself. I've been
meaning to sit down and write but I’ve been so damn busy.
I’ve been meaning to call too but hey what’s a fella
to do
Dean's address in the alternate reality is #53 Barker Avenue,
Lawrence, Kansas, 66044
Dean's girlfriend Carmen really exists in the real world. He has
seen her in an ad for El Sol Beer in a magazine.
When the Jessica and Carmen leave Sam and Dean alone to talk,
Sam says:That’s what you said when you snaked my ATM card
or when you bailed on my graduation or when you hooked up with
Rachel Nave. Rachel Nave was co-writer of 1.08 Bugs.
Quotes
Professor:
Son? You been drinking?
Dean: Everybody keeps asking me that. But, uh, no.
Dean: (at John's grave): Why? Why is it my job to save these people?
Why do I have to be some kind of hero? What about us? Mom's not
supposed to live? Sammy's not supposed to get married? Why do
we have to sacrifice everything, Dad?
Dean: We don't? Well, we should. You're my brother.
Sam: "You're my brother."
Dean: Yeah!
Sam: You know, that's what you said when you snaked my ATM card,
or when you bailed on my graduation, or when you hooked up with
Rachel Name.
Dean: Who?
Sam: Uh, my prom date. On prom night.
Dean: Yeah, that does kinda sound like me.
Dean: Bitch.
Sam: What are you calling me a bitch for?
Dean: You're supposed to say jerk.
Sam: What?
Dean: {dissapointed} Nevermind.
Sam: I thought it was supposed to be a fantasy.
Dean: It wasn't. If Mom never died, you and me would've never
gone hunting and you and me, you know.
Sam: Yeah. Well, I'm glad we did.
Dean: But it's not real. None of it is.
Mary: It's still better than anything you ever had.
Sam: Look, whatever stupid thing you’re about to do, you’re
not doing it alone and that’s that.
Dean: I don’t understand, why are you doing this?
Sam: Because you’re still my brother.
Dean: You should have seen it, Sam... our lives... you were such
a wussy.
Dean: Ever since Dad... all I can think about is how much this
job has cost us. We’ve lost so much; we’ve sacrificed
so much...
Sam: But people are alive because of you. It’s worth it,
Dean. It is. It’s not fair, and y’know it hurts like
hell, but it’s worth it.
References
*
The episode title What Is and What Should Never Be
Led
Zeppelin song "What Is and What Should Never Be" from
the 1969 album Led Zeppelin II
* Dean: My god, Barbara Eden was hot, wasn’t she? And way
hotter then that Bewitched chick.
Barbara Eden played a genie or djinn in the 60's TV series
I Dream of Jeannie. Elizabeth Montgomery starred as Samantha,
a witch with a twitchy nose in the TV series Bewitched
* The scene of Dean mowing the lawn behind a picket fence is a
visual reference to the David Lynch movie Blue Velvet, which is
about the darkness that can lie beneath an idyllic suburban facade.
* There are
two quotes from the movie The Wizard of Oz.
Sam:
Where are we? Dean: Well, we're not in Kansas anymore.
and when Dean wakes up:
Dean: Aunty Em? There's no place like home.
which is the same line Dorothy says when she wakes up back
in Kansas.