#bloodboneanddarkness

[dustydreamsanddirtyscars]

9x10 “Road Trip” // 10x23 “Brother’s Keeper” The Blood on Your Hands

Posted as part of the Series “Of Blood, Bone and Darkness”: A Carver Era Rewatch Hiatus Meta-Series

I know there are probbaly going to be a few people out there who’d massively disagree with me on the opinion that these two scenes work as perfect mirrors to one another since in the S9 episode we don’t deal with a mirror shot as we do in the S10 finale and we also don’t get Dean washing blood of his hands which is an integral element to the shot of Gadreel in “Road Trip” - still, to me these two moments connected really neatly and not just due to the fact that Dean’s frantic washing of hands paired with him seeing Rudy who he got kileld and Cas, who he almost killed imo is absolutely implying that Dean is desperately trying to wash the blood off his hands (we actually get another visual of this in S12 with Vince Vincente and Lucifer tormenting him which aligns with these moments, but given that it’s from Dabb Era I decided against including it here) that is of course not to be seen, but that clings to his mind.

Furthermore - and I have talked at great length about how tightly and neatly Dean’s and Gadreel’s stories were woven into one another - these scenes shine light on how similar and pure in it’s essence Gadreel’s and Dean’s motivation were when they decided to give them over to a “mission” without reading the fine print first and how it “corrupted” both of them.

Gadreel here is washing his hands clean after he killed the arguably only friend he had while he was imprisoned. He killed Abner, the one who had to endure similar torture as himself. And he does so on order by Metatron - as he did with Kevin - misguided and mislead, thinking he trusts the right person. To me this not only aligns rather directly with how Dean took on the mark without letting Cain explain the consequences first (but only thinking about killing Abaddon without caring whether he’d make it out alive, because to a certain extent taking on that mark to Dean served as a sort of “sentence” for his mistakes with letting Gadreel possess Sam) and then becoming a slave to the mark’s bloodlust that let to him getting Rudy killed and coming close to stabbing Cas when he tried to get through to Dean in 10x22 “The Prisoner“, but this scene here also paves the way for Dean being the mindset to even take on the mark in the first place.

Gadreel killing Kevin and pulling Sam’s strings and taking over is a mirror to how Dean becomes a puppet to the mark’s will. So yes, to me it will never not be absolutely tragic but also absolutely genious of Carver to align and intertwine the stories of the angel who caused “humanity’s fall” by letting the serpent into the garden, desperate for redemption and Dean Winchester, who was let astray by deciding over his brother’s head for him to be possessed anf thus trusting Gadreel, but that trust getting betrayed and sending Dean into the spiral and arc that would end with Dean - the ultimate stand in and symbol of humanity - to fall, fall from humanity. And as I said in my last post in this series as well, it’s no accident that both Gadreel and Dean both die in the S9 finale by an angel blade driven through their hearts...

[dustydreamsanddirtyscars]

9x10 “Road Trip” In Terms of Bridges Burnt...

Posted as part of the Series “Of Blood, Bone and Darkness”: A Carver Era Rewatch Hiatus Meta-Series

This will always be one of the many amazing and extremely emotional scenes of which S9 had so many. And I adore Jensen’s performance here, how you can see so many emotions ranging from grief and disbelief to self loathing, shock and anger (most of all directed at himself) playing over Dean’s features here. It is definitely one of those moments that hits you right where it hurts again every single time no matter how often you have re-watched the episode. God, this scene has in anutshell almost everything that I adored about S9 and S10 and Carver Era in general and one aspect in that was always front and center: raw emotion.

[dustydreamsanddirtyscars]

9x09 “Holy Terror” On the Other Side of the Process

Posted as part of the Series “Of Blood, Bone and Darkness”: A Carver Era Rewatch Hiatus Meta-Series

I really adored this moment for various reasons. The first one being the mere fact that Castiel, as a human, tries to pray and struggles with the concept and process of it. The second reason I love this moment lies in the silent storytelling and visuals, because the two lamps next to the bed as well as the bed post  continually frame Cas with “wings”, which perfectly underlines the struggle he faces here and that I mentioned already. And third of all the moment he gives up and opts to turn on the tv - because tv has always been sort of a “go to” for Cas (I’ve written about this topic more extensively in these two posts) - serves as an amazing throwback to Cas’ beginnings and “life on earth” as he himself first made contact with Jimmy Novak, a human, through the tv if my memory serves me right.

[dustydreamsanddirtyscars]

9x09 “Holy Terror” Disappearing Acts

Posted as part of the Series “Of Blood, Bone and Darkness”: A Carver Era Rewatch Hiatus Meta-Series

God, I remember how I felt when I saw this scene playing out for the very first time and DAMN was I excited and on edge. There was so much to like about this “plot twist” that didn’t come as too big a surprise, but was still pretty epic imo. At the time the episode was airing or rather a couple days before I had speculated about Gadreel as a “sleeper celll” as it to me fit perfectly to the title of the episode and I think in hindsight Gadreel/Ezekiel perfectly fits the criteria of a sleeper cell and how he gets “acitvated”. The revelation to Dean here, that “there is no more Sam” to me also aligns well with this “imagery/metaphor” as Gadreel has basically relegated Sam “to sleep” while he takes over. And of course the looming question remains how often before Gadreel had listened in on Kevin’s and Dean’s conversation, how often he had “played” Sam and how often Sam was truly Sam.

[dustydreamsanddirtyscars]

9x10 “Road Trip” A Dead Man Walking

Posted as part of the Series “Of Blood, Bone and Darkness”: A Carver Era Rewatch Hiatus Meta-Series

God S9 just hurt so bad, but in all the right ways - and yes it will probably always remain my favourite season and it is due to how friggin beautiful Dean’s fall and the entire focus on possession and vessels and how that gets turned on its head when it comes to Dean was set up and followed through.

This scene between Dean and Castiel here, where Dean says that he “was so stupid” and Castiel tries to reassure him that “he was stupid for the right reasons” and Dean is barely able to take to be comforted because of the guilt he feels and how he despises himself for having failed is just so beautiful in terms of foreshadowing and how it says so much with so preciously little.

The parts of the conversation captured above that are most important are Dean’s line about

a) a “dead man walking”, because essentially that is what Dean is after he was raised from the dead by Crowley and curtesy to the mark a demon.

b) the relation between a vessel and the entity possessing it - doesn’t matter whether it is an angel or a demon - and how killing one usually means also killing the other is foreshadowing and re-addressing how Dean is a special case and a demon within his own body.

This is of course all up to personal preference and what speaks to one most, but when re-watching episodes and dialogues like this one I just get all emotional again, because damn, what a beautifully tragic arc the MoC arc was.

[dustydreamsanddirtyscars]

9x09 “Holy Terror” A Skilled Soldier in Manipulation and Playing

Posted as part of the Series “Of Blood, Bone and Darkness”: A Carver Era Rewatch Hiatus Meta-Series

I always really enjoyed this moment, because it shows how cunning and downright scary Cas can be if he needs to, how well he can play and manipulate people if he needs to. The set to his jaw, the squint in his eyes - it is quite something. It’s probably not the most noble quality (then again most people possess it when situation demands it), but it sure comes in handy at times and it sure comes in handy for Cas here. I was struck by this moment in particular, because it felt like seeing a Castiel we haven’t seen in a long time. Yes, I felt reminded of the beginning of S4 when Castiel was this otherworldly creature with an aura that gave you goosebumps, because he was so “alien” and powerful and intimidating. This is how he felt to me here as well, I can't quite put my finger on it, but somehow this scene just gave off very specific vibes (in a way that I have not felt the show had drawn attention to in a long time prior to this) of how Cas of course inhabits a human body, but ultimately is anything but. And while by the end of S4 Castiel had fallen and sided with Dean, the Winchesters and humanity, in the very beginning when he appeared on the playing field he also played and manipulated Dean in a very comparable manner as he plays Theo here. He uses his chance, does what “he needs to” to get to the desired end result - even though he is hardly proud of that strategy and tactic here. But of course if there was one theme running through S9 it was the question “whether the ends always justify the means” and that notion definitely played over this scene heavily imo.

[dustydreamsanddirtyscars]

9x10 “Road Trip” // 11x20 “Don’t Call Me Shurley” // 12x07 “Rock Never Dies” On (Rock)Gods and Adoration

Posted as part of the Series “Of Blood, Bone and Darkness”: A Carver Era Rewatch Hiatus Meta-Series

Technically of course Lucifer wihin Vince Vincente doesn’t belong to Carver Era, but I thought I’d add it anyway, because it fits to a pattern that had been established during Carver’s time as a showrunner.

I think it is a rather interesting recurring element the writers chose to use in relation to angels, who they’d pick as their vessels and what their motivation behind it is. Of course Chuck as God is a special case, but regardless Thompson in that episode singled out music as one particular special “invention” by having Chuck talk about it more than once and more than that only in the highest form. And it is important to note how Chuck using and playing music differs from the other times we have seen the aspect music and rock stars possessed by angels addressed on the show, because the differences couldn’t be more striking imo.

In contrast to Thadeus and Lucifer, who both - much like Metatron in his own way - picked vessels to become “something more” than they’d been prior and to get the attention an adoration they always desperately craved, but never truly received as angels and the music aspect as such completely escapes them (it is all solely about power), with Chuck music works as a vehicle in which he seems much more sincere then he is during usual bantr and dialogue. With Chuck music really has a distinct and important quality and that is emotion, none of both play a role for either Thadeus or Lucifer and it fits to the “stereotype of angels not having a clue about emotion” (which of course wildly oversimplifies the matter, but it is a notion SPN explores on and off again).

So while with Chuck music has a quality of purity, Thadeus and especially Lucifer only use it with sinister end goals in mind. And that is where I have to think of another character that isn’t giffed above at all, but who has voiced as well that he once “dreamed about becoming a rockstar”: Dean.

I talked about this aspect briefly in this meta as a part of an earlier entry of this meta series, but it popped back into my head while typing and I thought that Dean mentioning liking to be a rockstar as a childhood dream fits the pattern as well. Dean however has nothing in common with Thadeus or Lucifer’s motives, because while to me Dean’s “dream” also can be read as a wish for recognition and feeling like a hero (which he is of course but he would never believe if being told that), his wish is much purer and lacks any evil agenda. It’s solely an aspect to illustrate the fact that Dean does lack self confidence at times and would never think of himself as anything special or particularly important or loved.

Well, Chuck thought differently obviously, he called Dean “the firewall between light and darkness” after all and seemed to almost emulate/become/absorb Dean (which of course further worked with the parallel with Dean as a stand in for the divine and Chuck who Amara wanted to reconcile with), so I like to think that Dean as a christ figure and someone “chosen by God” shares the same “pure” love for music...

[dustydreamsanddirtyscars]

9x09 “Holy Terror” No Other Options: Rejecting Responsibility

Posted as part of the Series “Of Blood, Bone and Darkness”: A Carver Era Rewatch Hiatus Meta-Series

If there was one mantra carrying the viewer through the episode it was this line: “I did what I had to.” It can also be seen as a running theme throughout the whole season. It doesn’t need much explanation, because the line speaks perfectly for itself. Imo it is a neat way to reject responsibility for your own actions and with that also calls back to the big and longest standing theme of supernatural: free will and/or destiny.