Plucky Pennywhistle’s Magical Menagerie

Season 7

Episode 14

“Plucky Pennywhistle’s Magical Menagerie”

                Weird deaths in a town and the Winchester roll in, only to find out the deaths are caused by children’s fears. The children all seemed to have went to a funhouse place called Plucky Pennywhistle’s Magical Menagerie, which brings Sam’s fear of clowns back into the mix. After finally finding out that there is a sub-basement in the building Dean rushes down to find one of the employees using magic. During that time Sam is face to face with not one but two evil magic clowns. That just won’t die, however, Dean is able to bring the casters worst fear into existence and it kills the caster.

                This episode was a good chance to get some more backstory into the boys. We learn Dean used to leave Sam in funhouses and go off to hit on girls. Which is completely believable because it’s Dean, and that is completely within character. At least he apologizes about it at the end of the episode to Sam and then proceeds to throw a clown toy at him. What a great brother.

                Of course it was not Sam’s greatest fear that was brought into reality simply a fear that the caster brought alive. Seeing as Sam has schizophrenic episodes seeing Lucifer, either he or the memories of the cage are probably his worst fear. We didn’t see any of Dean’s fears come to life in this episode perhaps to say that we always see Dean’s fears. Dean is the one that sought Sam out at the beginning of the series because he didn’t want to hunt alone. No matter how far into the series we get, no matter what heroic and selfless things we see Sam and Dean do. Dean will always be the one that is afraid. Dean is afraid of becoming a monster, not saving his brother, not getting revenge on the demon that killed their mom, and countless more. Whereas Sam we have special episodes to show that he is scared of something. That tells you a lot about Sam’s character.

                Sam just as Dean has stood up to incredibly terrifying foes, but he had to live with the Devil inside of him. He was locked in a cage in which Lucifer and Michael were together and fighting. His soul was stripped raw and he’s afraid of clowns. Not of monsters and ghouls. Clowns, because of his brother. Which is sad but also shows how much of an impact Dean has on his life, every part of his life starting from the moment he was born. Without Dean carrying Sam out of that fire, Sam may not have made it. Sam was ready to sacrifice himself for his brother in season 3 at every step of the journey. Both of these characters have been through so much but in the end. When the show is brought to its roots, it’s about two brothers in an incredibly messed up supernatural setting and their biggest weakness, their biggest fear is losing the other one.