The parallels in this episode were outstanding. At first, Max seemed more like the obvious Sam parallel to me. Remember when Dean showed up all worried about John and Sam was just like “Oh he’s off on a bender. He’ll show up.” Max was very Sam. Plus even though Sam made the comment to Alicia about both Dean and John being in the life like Max and his mom, Dean said that it was actually Sam that was more like John. 

But when Alicia died? That was so clearly a direct parallel to Sam’s death and Max reacted EXACTLY like Dean did. Make a deal, bring them back, who needs a soul anyway? 

This show does love beautiful codependent siblings.

Dean in “The French Mistake”: Here you’ve got a pretty good life. Back home the hits been coming since you were six months old. You gotta admit, being a bazillionaire, married to Ruby, the whole package it’s no contest.
Sam in “The French Mistake”: We just don’t mean the same thing here. I mean we’re not even brothers here, man.

Sam in “Regarding Dean”: Just, you know the things we’ve done, we’ve had this weight for- forever. Seeing it gone, you looked happy.
Dean in “Regarding Dean”: Look was it nice to drop our baggage? Yeah, maybe. Hell, probably. But it wasn’t just the crap that got lost, I mean it was everything. It was us. It was what we do, all of it. So if that’s what being happy looks like? I think I’ll pass.