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Initial Overview:

Revenge is bad. Here is psychotic John 2 to prove it.

Notes:

Gordon is introduced as the monster hunting an innocent. SamDean initially compound this assessment.

Dean: I've got a car, a case...

Altercation with the cops. Thinks they're stupid, patronizes them. Journalism doesn't work as a disguise (laughed out) so they're morgue employees. Have cute argument over who's gonna touch the decapitated head.

Go out to find vampires, find Gordon instead. Rejects them from the hunt because of his secretive methodology (aka indiscriminate and overzealous violence).

Everyone seems to know more about the boys than the boys know about anyone else. John kept them cut off from the whole hunting world

SamDean follow Gordon to the vampire anyway & Dean goes overkill. HOT but Sam is worried. Dean's violence endears him to Gordon, which Sam also doesn't like → "He's the only one who gets to call me that."

"I'm looking into that fire thinking: I'm 16 years old. Kids my age are worried about [nothing] and I've already seen things they'll never know or even dream about. Right then I just sort of..." [Gordon finishes the sentence] → lies about how he got started, Gordon puts words in his mouth, "embrace it." Dean doesn't seem to agree.

Gordon killed his sister after she became a vampire.

Gordon refers to his sister as "gone," a euphemism for her turn. Dean also refers to John as gone with arguably the same meaning

Refuses to talk about John's death with Sam because he has to "keep [his] game face on."

• Game face: amicability, strength, masculinity, stability. Why does he feele the need to perform for Sam? Well, because it's what he's always done, but I think that it keeps him together. Having to pretend everything is ok is providing a model for Sam-- it's all for Sam. In fact, in 2.21 Sam specifically calls out this act that Dean does as helpful to him in times of crisis.

Ellen warns Sam against working with Gordon as he's a danger to others. I imagine she'd say the same thing about John.

Gordon marks difference between Sam & Dean by implying Sam is weak.

Sam is kidnapped by vegan vampires. They drink animal blood instead of human, which of course endears them to Sam, as they are the first occurence of "human" monsters, or monsters that try not to hurt people. This is in direct opposition to the narrative around monsters thus far as inherently evil, and the fact that theyare vampires helps their specific comparison to Sam as they were all turned against their will. Gordon rejects these vampires outright on the grounds that they are monsters and will kill eventually, while Dean has to be persuaded away from This position by Sam.

• in defying this John-type worldview, he also denies the good/bad notion of the world-- it is no longer absolute. They now have the freedom to play in the grey areas.

The vampire's mercy specifically is what gets Sam on their side.

In argument about killing the vampires:

• Sam listens to Ellen, Dean listens to Gordon
• Directly calls out similarity to John. Sam is frustrated that Dean let Gordon in but not him.
• 2nd reference to "hole" of anguish (lol)
• Dean hits Sam about it. Domestic abuser core
• Sam begs for trust, empathy

Dean calls Sam a "monster pain in the ass"

Vampires are having the exact same argument. Refer to each other as brother/sister/partner interchangeably. One argues to stay and fight, other says run. They don't get to make the choice before Gordon arrives

Dean is very off-put by Gordon torturing the vampires.

Gordon reveals his sororicide. This above all else is his greatest sin and the thing that seals the deal in Dean turning against him. He feeds Sam's blood to the vampire to prove she is only a monster, but she is strong enough to resist her urges.

Dean holds Gordon at gunpoint which quickly devolves into a barfight brawl, for reasons arguably outside Dean's understanding. I suspect because of the betrayal, but Gordon also continues to wedge Sam's percieved weakness or softness between them, & he's just flat out angry at John, who of course Gordon is a stand-in for.

Dean tries to get Sam to hit him in exchange fpr the punch he threw earlier. Says that this hunt fucked everything up, now worries about what he might have killed that didn't deserve it. Feels that John made him into a person he doesn't want to be. Sam defends John, doesn't like the inverse.