Truly the way this scene would have hit so much harder if Mary was the right age. Like Dean, girl, you're 40! You sound crazy!! That is a truly crazy thing to say to her!! She's 29! She's been dead for decades! She was brutally murdered! Her marriage was arranged by heaven! Her babies are now fully grown men! She just learned what tiktok is!
But this dynamic also validates Dean's feelings sooooooooo much more imo. If Mary really is 10+ years younger than he is, and if she's given the internal life in the narrative to process everything that's happened to her and to grieve and figure things out on her own, then what he wants is truly something he can't have!
It's not just an issue of Mary being able to meet his needs and choosing not to or needing more time, she really truly cannot give him what he's asking for and that is so painful! And it's so real. That kind of grief and the struggle to accept that your parent is never going to parent you the way that you need them to.
Dean really did lose his mother, and even though she's back, it doesn't change or fix that, it just forces all these feelings to the surface. It's messy. It isn't fair. And it isn't either of their faults. It's that kind of family trauma that you don't really have anywhere to put, it just carves out a space in you.
Anyways stream Ten Minutes From Home: Lebanon Coda to play in the 29 year old Mary space with me <3
