Everybody got into hunting somehow.

Supernatural – Dream a Little Dream of Me
Bobby is poisoned with a dream potion and lapses into a deadly coma, so Sam and Dean take the potion themselves to enter the dream and save him … but to do so they must confront their own personal nightmares.

This Supernatural ep was a little different from the usual fare. It opens on Bobby, who is having a terrible nightmare while asleep in his hotel room. The maid cannot wake him up, so he is taken to the hospital and the doctor calls Dean, who is listed as Bobby’s emergency contact. Adorable.

In Bobby’s notes, the brothers discover a reference to a murdered doctor, and learn that he was involved in sleep studies – more specifically, helping people who cannot dream using a plant, Silene capensis, commonly known as African dream root. Dean talks with a student named Jeremy, a test subject in the murdered doctor’s experiments. Reading up on the legends, Sam finds that with practice, a person using this plant could become “a regular Freddy Krueger.” [A reference to Nightmare on Elm Street, for those who don't know].

The boys call Bela for help, and surprisingly she brings them the herb. When asked why she’s helping, she claims that Bobby once saved her life. Also, Sam has a fantastic sex dream about her before she shows up. This is fun. I get the impression that Bela is hot for Dean, and I keep waiting for them to hook up at some point. For Sam to have a schoolboy crush on her [“Nice to seeing you, Bela!”] adds a dimension of humor but also a darker layer of possible future resentment between the brothers.

The Winchester boys go into Bobby’s deliciously creepy dream, where Sam encounters Jeremy. Dean finds Bobby cowering in a closet, and we learn that some time ago Bobby killed his wife because she was possessed, and he didn’t know what to do. Dean begs Bobby to wake up, saying he's like a father to him. Awwww. This works, and the three spring back to life – Bobby in the hospital, the bros in their hotel room. When the trio reunites, they don’t discuss the situation much beyond Bobby explaining that everyone becomes a hunter for a reason.

They try to stay awake for several days, but finally Dean gets fed up and goes to sleep, with Sam taking more African dream root so he can tag along. When we enter Dean’s dream world, we see Lisa sitting serenely on the grass with a picnic, talking about Ben. This has huge implications for Dean’s character. For those who don’t know/remember, earlier this season Dean had come to believe that an ex-girlfriend’s son belonged to him. This was later disproved, but that was the second of two eps in which Dean ponders a different future for himself. The first, of course, was second season’s “What Is and What Should Never Be,” when Dean is drugged into a comatose state and imagines what his life would be if his mother had never been killed. His vision of Lisa is yet another reminder that for all his bravado, Dean desperately wishes he could have a “normal” life.

And then the dream turns even darker. The boys are separated, and Jeremy reveals himself to Sam again, after [literally] crucifying him to the ground. Sam uses his knowledge of Jeremy – and perhaps some of his latent psychic ability – to gain control of the dream, revealing Jeremy’s abusive father. Dean, meanwhile, encounters himself. Dream Dean says that John always loved Sam more [all demons try this angle], that Dean simply provides blindly obedient muscle, and that he hates himself so much he can’t be bothered to try and save his own life. Real Dean is having none of this, so he shoots himself in the chest, and the brothers wake up only to discover that Bela has stolen the Colt. Bitch!

After all the fun dies down, Dean finally admits that he doesn’t want to die. Part of the beauty of Supernatural is the stoic emotional scenes between Sam and Dean – there is rarely voice cracking or tearing-up of eyes because, you know, they’re tough. This huge moment is simple and clean:

Dean: Sam?
Sam: Yeah?
Dean: I've been thinking. And the thing is I don't want to die. I don't want to go to hell.
Sam: Alright, yeah. We'll find a way to save you.
Dean: Okay, good.

But in Dean’s head, Dream Dean pops back to life as a black-eyed demon, screaming, “You can’t escape me, Dean! You’re gonna die, and this is what you’re gonna become!”

Woah.