himself in a long hallway. He enters his motel room, and comes face-to-face with a dream version of him; he is his own worst nightmare. The Dream Dean comments on the real Dean's feelings of worthlessness and self-loathing; he also deems Dean to be as "mindless and obedient as an attack dog", noting that his possessions, personality, and motives all stem from his father. When the Dream Dean calls him a "good soldier and nothing else", the real Dean reacts violently and exclaims that he did not deserve the burdens that his father put onto him and that he does not deserve to go to Hell. The real Dean shoots his doppelganger with a shotgun, but he returns to life as a demon. The Dream Dean taunts him that he cannot escape his fate, and reminds him that exposure to Hell will transform him into a demon. Elsewhere, Sam finds and confronts Jeremy. The latter manipulates the dreamscape to his favor, but Sam retaliates by summoning the form of Jeremy's father. A terrified Jeremy is distracted, and Sam kills him with a baseball bat. The brothers then awaken from their dreams. When they find that Bela lied about Bobby saving her life, they realize that she stole the Colt—a mystical gun capable of killing anything—from them. As the brothers prepare to leave to hunt her down, Dean admits that he does not want to die. Sam promises him that they will figure out a way to save him. Production Conception Deemed by series creator Eric Kripke to be his homage to the film Dreamscape, the episode was the culmination of many previous pitches. Series writer Sera Gamble had been suggesting a dream-based episode since the show's first season, but it was not until the third season that the writers found the concept feasible. Although Cathryn Humphris was selected to pen "Dream a Little Dream of Me" due to her position on the writers' rotation, she was teamed with Gamble to develop the story. On this pairing, Humphris commented, "I think that we complement each other well. Sera's great at the really scary moments, and I think I'm pretty good at some of the connective tissue and putting stuff together in the larger landscape." Writing "Dream a Little Dream of Me" delves into the backstory of hunter Bobby Singer. The writers always knew his history would be "grounded in family". Reflecting