It’s easy to look back on many of Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean’s (Jensen Ackles) actions throughout Supernatural and justify some of their bad choices. After all, everything does seem to work out in the end, even if the brothers have to go through Hell (literally) to get there. But there was one instance in particular where Dean’s actions were entirely unforgivable, and many struggled with the elder Winchester’s ability to simply move on without any apparent repercussions. If you also thought of that moment at the end of Season 6 when Dean has Castiel (Misha Collins) erase Ben (Nicholas Elia) and Lisa Braeden’s (Cindy Sampson) memories, then you’re on the right track.
Dean Winchester Made Lisa and Ben Braeden Forget Him on ‘Supernatural’
After Sam jumped into Hell with Lucifer in the Season 5 finale, Dean honored his brother’s final wishes to go settle down with Lisa Braedon and her son Ben. The pair had been introduced two seasons earlier in the episode “The Kids Are Alright,” when Dean and Lisa reconnected after several years. But Dean could never get past Lisa. She was the “one who got away,” and Ben was the closest thing that Dean ever had to a son (in fact, the jury’s still out on whether he was actually Dean’s son or not). For a year, Dean settles into this “normal, apple pie life” with Lisa and Ben in the unassuming town of Cicero, Indiana, until Sam returns, shattering the illusion that Dean could walk away from hunting forever. Throughout Season 6, Dean tries to still make it work between himself and Lisa (and is still there for Ben when he needs him), but all of that comes back to bite Dean in the season’s penultimate episode, “Let It Bleed.”
On orders from Crowley (Mark A. Sheppard), a demon possesses Lisa and holds Ben hostage until Dean can come and deal with the situation personally. While Dean saves Lisa, it’s not without a great cost. Lisa is nearly killed when the demon stabs her in the gut, and Dean and Ben are forced to rush her to the hospital. Despite being on different sides at the time, Castiel arrives and heals Lisa, but that’s not enough for Dean. He demands that the angel also erase all of her and Ben’s memories of him (and anything supernatural) so that they can go back to living a normal life. Though it comes across as somewhat selfless, as Dean puts their lives before his own desire to be with them, it’s terribly invasive and morally questionable. The Braedens get no say in the way their lives are about to change, and their love for Dean isn’t even consulted. Instead, Dean makes the decision, and then tells Sam never to mention them to him again.
Jensen Ackles’ Dean Was Happiest With Ben and Lisa on ‘Supernatural’
Not only were Lisa and Ben not consulted about this decision (which is bad enough), but Dean didn’t consider the fact that they would eventually go back home wondering the rest of their lives about what was missing. No doubt, there are references to Dean all over their home (between pictures and letters and other keepsakes they would have no memory of), and the amount of mental and emotional turmoil a decision like this would have on a person would certainly be far more than just wiping one’s memory. While this decision allowed Supernatural to return to its regular status quo, with Sam and Dean back on the road and without any family ties to keep them down, it robbed Dean of the happiest period of his life. Worse, Dean steals that very happiness from them as well, and the show continues for nearly a decade without another mention of them again.
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While there’s no way that Supernatural was ever going to allow Dean to be happy (the show couldn’t even give him a happy ending, instead having to fix his story on the sequel spin-off The Winchesters), there was hope that his time with Lisa and Ben would somehow be able to fit into the overall show. Sure, there were plenty of fans who (being frustrated with the sixth season’s various shifts in the status quo) just wanted the pair gone, but many of us wanted Dean to be able to have the family he never got to have on his own.
We see throughout Supernatural that both Sam and Dean truly want to settle down and leave their hunting life behind. Sam gets a few more chances, and ultimately does at the very end of the show, but this is the last time that Dean was ever truly happy with his life. Sure, he found meaning and value in it, but the love he shared with Lisa and Ben was something else entirely, something that the show should have taken more time to work into the show.
‘Supernatural’ Strangely Never Mentions Ben or Lisa Again
In the show’s final season, Sam admits to Dean that he thinks about his deceased girlfriend Jessica Moore (Adrianne Palicki) all the time. Even over a decade after her death, Sam still dreams about what a life with her would have been like. There’s no doubt that Dean feels the exact same way about Lisa and Ben, and perhaps even more so, because he actually played house with them for a time. Then there’s the notion that Ben may very well be Dean’s actual son, as the demon possessing Lisa reveals. Of course, demons lie, and Lisa had previously stated that Ben wasn’t Dean’s child biologically, but that hasn’t stopped many from believing that she was actually lying, hoping to protect both her and Ben if Dean were to ride out of their lives again. It turns out, she may have been right to do so, as Dean never reflected on his time with them going forward. Of all the things that Dean Winchester did on Supernatural, from becoming a demon to having to fight his own daughter, nothing was worse than this.
