There is something that makes me deeply insane about Dean's bar in Nihilism that I've been trying to put words to since forever.
It's not just that Pamela is acting as his behavioral avatar, animating and speaking as if on cue. It's that Sam and Cas are still hunting.
And yeah, it's a pragmatic way for Michael to run an effective loop but—but—
—but it's also Dean symbolically entrusting Sam's well-being to Cas. Dean’s reliance on Cas is profound; it’s about Cas being a crucial part of the family, someone who will safeguard both himself and Sam in the way Dean has always done. Cas's support is what allows Dean to rest.
And we see that come into play in a big way in Peace of Mind, too, where Cas steps in directly to mentor Sam about failing in leadership. It’s as though Cas is stepping into Dean's shoes in a way that’s not about replacing him, but about becoming a partner in the fullest sense.
And in a way, Dean's trust in Cas to take on that role does begin to mirror the kind of deep, emotional partnership that one might expect between married partners. Dean knows that Cas has the strength, the patience, and the wisdom to guide Sam through these challenging moments, and he’s willing to let him.
And again, but here in a very literal way: Cas's support is what allows Dean to rest.
They’re no longer just partners in battle or allies; they’re equals, sharing the weight of the world and taking on the roles that the other can’t or feels too overwhelmed to do.
what drives me a little insane about Charming Acres is that it's a male fantasy created by a scared white old man but it's also enforced by women (specifically the labor of women, more on Ms Dowling vs Cindy Smith later) who act a little bit like Mary/Eve, aka as regulators deciding who must stay (Cindy) and who must leave (Sunny). Much to think about that but also! It connects so wonderfully with my obession with the themes of "the danger/charm of families one marries into" and "access to the Normal World in SPN is always via a woman (and her labor)". The first pertains to John Winchester whose whole life was founded on lies upon lies, the second to his sons who seem to follow in his footsteps thinking that a woman would "fix" their issues and allow them to "escape" from their world, their reality. Women are fictions that can save (or damn), that can lock you out of heaven or welcome you back in. And, of course, these are all invented narratives (the madonna/whore dichotomy) but they also show how much these ideas are ingrained in the (male) characters' minds. They don't actually need a psychic making them "buy into" a fiction because, in a way, they've mind-controlled themselves into being slaves of these narratives . But they're also the perpetrators (the authors, if you will) of these narratives that they inflict upon others (for example, the women and men of Charming Acres) and, primarily, upon themselves (hence, Chip getting trapped in his own mind where he can be happy without harming others which, if we want to go there, can also translate into: in order to be happy you will inevitably hurt people). In other words, there is a "chip" inside these characters' minds that must be destroyed. So apart from madonna/whore (which is more related to possession and consent) the second interesting dichotomy in SPN is that of the master/slave (which is more related to mind control) which is, basically, the blueprint for all the other dichotomies in the show.
When, at the end of S14, Jack wills a world without lies into existence (committing yet another act of mind control) three things become violently apparent: the world itself is not as it is but it's as we narrate it to ourselves first and to others second, aka a fiction ("Breakdown" is also about this as well); lies are not only necessary but inherently essential for the world to function, aka lies are the basis of Order; Chuck doesn't simply act as a deus ex machina because, on the meta level, he's also an author here, an author that's actually needed in order to keep the illusion going, aka the world ceases to operate without a white man telling lies and pushing buttons. This means that there is no other option beyond the master/slave dichotomy which in turns means that the whole of S15 is just a display of suffering leading nowhere. Like, the show had made up its mind about the message it wanted to convey by "Moriah": you need an author because, without one, the world is in Chaos from which stories are impossible to tell because they need imagined and arbitrary beginnings and endings, aka they need some sort of Order AND "lies". Not only that, you need a hands-on God because without an author planning, scheming, deviating, inventing, interfering, aka being present, the story either ceases to exist or, if it still does exist, it's a boring story, a re-run nobody's really interested in anymore.
And this is why, to me, all the meta madness of S15 is both cool (to a certain point) and dangerous (very much so) because it literalizes fiction which is always something very dangerous to do (see: the whole history of Christianity). But it also fictionalizes reality which is also very harmful, especially if the author god in question is a white man with close to limitless power and full-on unhingedness. So, in the end, women are fictions invented by men, about men and for other men, but so are men: fictions by men, about men and for other men. Ultimate reality is, therefore, the Fiction of Man, precisely of a white man, and there is no escape from that because the show cannot imagine power other than a relation between master and slave. And, look, my intentions are not to shit on SPN because at least a good 80% of TV shows are white man-centered and can't imagine power in any other way, but I hold a grudge towards its finale because I think SPN could've done a tiny bit better than describing Jack as "top dog" (which is in total and absolute contradiction with the fact that, apparently, Amara and Jack are in "harmony". I mean, come on, this is bad writing, period).
So Chuck's story, the Fiction of (White) Man can only "end" the same way it "began", which is to go back to the "In the beginning..." (and how many Genesis do we have in SPN?, it is a bit exhuasting, really, lol). In "Inherit the Earth" (and let's quickly remember who the subject of that sentence is: the meek, the meek shall inherit the earth), Chuck, not so subtly, reverted Earth to its "origins" and what we are left with are Dean, Sam and Jack, aka Adam, Eve and the snake. But this time there is no escape from this "Paradise" because, as I said above, the only ways to "escape" are via marrying into another family or via a woman's labor. In this episode, however, there is no "escape" because 1. the only family you can marry into is your own family (:|) and 2. there are no women (brrr). The only solution is, then, to go back to how things were before, to the status quo, by cheating and self-sacrifice.
Finally, in this light the "destiny/free will" dichotomy is reduced as follows: "destiny" is perceived as being (ab)used and controlled by a master (aka being a slave), therefore "free will" is being the one who (ab)uses and is in control (aka being the master). Which means that "free will" for one means "destiny" for another. Or: there is no real sense of collectiveness and community in the show (this is why the world must disappear and the only characters left are the ones mentioned above). I think, maybe, the answer is that, ultimately, control is never questioned because fundamentally the show thinks that control in the hands of one IS not only possible but necessary. And while it can go as far as to at least explore (to a very limited degree) why controlling someone else's body is (possession/consent etc), indeed, wrong, it just cannot do the same when it comes to a more "invisible" control, that of the mind. Which means that the show cannot imagine anything past the master/slave dichotomy. And I think this limitation was reinforced by the meta-fication of the show: on one hand it's a cool concept, on the other they put themselves into a corner because there is no show without someone actually controlling and performing the narrative both for an audience and for profit. Hence, the final shot where the fourth wall is broken, all masks are revealed and we're back to "Moriah" where Jack tells people to "stop lying": what remains is the audience feeling disappointed and realizing that we do want an Author because we want more fiction and we want our stories to make sense. We can even yield control for more fiction which is, of course, a human but also horrifying attitude (and by the way this is 100% relevant to contemporary discourses about generative AI and authorship so I predict SPN will keep interest people in the near future, mark my words).
Ultimately SPN feels "scammy" to me because it feels like Charming Acres: we as audience have been lured into this interesting fiction, the fiction we craved, but, at the very last second, the show has closed itself off into his own "fictionality". It's like "The Truman Show" where Truman is actually SPN that "excused" itself and went out the fake-sky door. Which turns us, the audience, into Christoff, the author/god/director who gets "defeated" by Truman leaving the stage, who gets to "spy" on the "author-less" characters against their fight for... "free will". SPN finale basically removes the author (here to be read as the people who create the story) as "filter" and leaves, on a meta level, the characters alone with the audience who, obvi, reveal themselves as actors because it's fiction, not reality, baby.
In other words, the audience can't "own" the story. We might be like Becky and, perhaps, even be better at writing that story but we're not its authors. Of course, this is totally an uncool way to end a story and a cruel low blow to the audience that actually made it even possible but, again, very relevant to the current scenario we live in: there is a metaphorical "chip" that feeds on our info, shapes our reality and is also generating our fictions. We're becoming authors, characters and audience of our own fictions but.... are they really our own? What do we see when we see our own narratives played out in front of our eyes? Can we claim authorship? Why do we want authorship and how fair is it to claim it as our own? Aren't we all a little bit characters trapped inside our minds? Can we escape from this? How does a manifest, individual "author" fare against an immanent, occult one? What are the alternatives we can come up with? Can we imagine power differently? These and many other questions may legitimately arise :P.
After Peace of Mind, Dean & Cas have a little too much fun at Sam's expense.
///
After the Charming Acres case, Sam’s depression is still a heavy weight around his neck. But he he sleeps soundly for the first time in weeks. Maybe Cas’s pep talk about honoring the AU hunters’ memory, and not failing Jack and Dean, had actually helped.
When they get back to the bunker, even the good-natured ribbing from Dean n' Cas about the cardigan (and the glasses and the ponytail) is kinda soothing.
It's almost enough to distract him from the shame of failing everyone.
///
Weirdly enough, Sam remembers everything “Justin Smith” did, from pulling on the buttery soft cardigan in the morning, to demanding a martini from “Cindy,” (who, by the way, actually turned out to be a high-powered lawyer named Megan from Chicago).
He chuckles to himself, recalling (a little wistfully if he's honest) their Stepford-decorated house, her throaty purr, and his matched, painfully awkward, “Rawr.”
But then, Dean’s grating voice drives a knife through the not-fantasy.
“Dude, seriously? When did you get that?”
Blame it on the lack of sleep, but Sam nearly jumps out of his skin. "Get what?”
“Uhh, the blender, Martha Stewart.”
Sam looks down at the bowl in his hands (chopped papaya, mango, banana, cucumber) and over to the new Ninja blender sitting proudly on the counter.
“Uhh, yesterday, dude.”
“Yesterday.”
“Yeah, Dean. Yesterday.”
Dean looks overjoyed, but it’s in that mean-spirited, you’re-never-gonna-hear-the-end-of-this kinda way.
“Is that…dairy? I thought you were all rabbit foodin' it lately.”
Sam curls his arms around his vanilla protein powder, just as Cas trudges into the kitchen. “It’s rice milk,” he hisses, willing them both to go the-fuck-away.
Cas blinks at the ingredients, looks to Sam, then looks back to the ingredients. He slowly breaks into his crooked, sideways smile. Sam doesn't like it.
“Sam," Cas says, too-politely. "Are those ingredients to concoct a milkshake?”
Understanding slowly blooms on Dean’s face. “Oh, my god, Sammy. Milkshake!”
Busted. Sam sighs and continues measuring out the nutritional powders he's planning on adding.
And then, Cas pokes a little more, “I assume it’s your take on ‘Harrington’s famous townie' milkshake?”
“Oh, my god, Harrington's," Dean echoes, like they're doing the world's most annoying comedy-duo Bit. "Like the one from your fake hometown in bumfuck, Arkansas? That Harrington's?”
“It’s just a protein shake, Dean.”
Sam tries not to sull' up, but he knows that's probably what he's doing.
“Kay, Smoothie King.”
“You know,” Cas says, faux-lightly. And despite his careful expression and flat tone, it's clear that he's enjoying himself at Sam’s expense. “At first, we thought the 1950s 'craze' was a spell transmitted through the milkshakes. Sam seemed very bewitched by them, at least.”
Dean's cheeks dimple even more.
"Really? And how were the milkshakes, Sammy? Did they, yanno, bring all the boys to the yard?"
Sam rolls his eyes so hard it makes him a little seasick. "Yeah, Dean. They were good milkshakes."
Cas chimes in with a strange, incredibly dorky vocal intonation of the original Justin Smith, " I believe it was, 'They're the best.'"
It's spot on. He even swings his arms into plucky, swaggering fists as he says it.
Dean snorts, and Cas continues.
“I had a strawberry milkshake. There was a cherry on top."
"Ohhh, a cherry." Deans crows. He sways way too close to Cas, and Cas takes a sudden step back, right into Sam's space. Sam hisses, 'watch it' and moves his bowl of fruit outta the way, before they knock it over.
"Didja poppa cherry? Huh, Cas?"
Too proud of himself for the stupid joke, Dean follows that up with a weird, throaty purr. Sure, it sounds a little like Jim Gaffigan, or a fourteen-year-old boy making his first dirty joke, but strangely, all Sam can think of is Cindy.
Cas’s eyes rocket to Sam, and Sam draws himself up into a full-body cringe. Cas probably doesn't remember that exchange.
Sam hopes he doesn't remember.
Then, Cas narrows his eyes, grins triumphantly at Dean, and lift his hand up, clawlike, in the the exact same way Justin-Sam had done to Cindy.
“Rar.”
Dean puffs a bark of laughter. Then, he lowers his eyes...and he does the embarrassing throaty purr again.
“Rar,” answers Cas, overly simply.
He's totally pokerface about it, almost like he’s daring Sam to say something.
"Try it like this," Dean insists, and he purrs again and waggles his eyebrows. "Or you could do it like this: 'Ralllwwwr'." (When Dean does, it, of course, it has a perfect trill.)
Cas just deadpans back.
"Rar."
“Come on, Cas. That’s awful. At least roll the 'r'!”
Dean gets up in Cas's face again and does another particularly pervy-sounding purr. Cas tips his chin up, like he's thinking about trying harder, but:
"Rar."
They're so fucking stupid.
Sam notes that Cas's foot is totally in foot-stomping territory. If Sam wanted to, he could stomp on it.
He kind of wants to.
The Charming Acres jokes are getting fuckin' old, after all.
Cas cants his eyes to the side. “Of course, maybe Sam can show us how it's done?”
Dean scrunches up his face in confusion. "Sam can what?" His face continues to run through a thousand expressions, and Sam doesn't care to decode any of them. “Uh, am I missin' something?”
Cas actually snickers. “Or maybe Sam cannot. Maybe it was a purely a ‘Justin,’ thing.”
Dean blinks stupidly. "Wait. Wha-?"
“If my memory serves me, and it almost always does, I recall ‘Justin’ rawr-ing at his ‘wife.’”
Dean finally gets it. Then, he looks like Christmas has come early. And he bends double as he howls with laughter. He wags his finger at Sam.
"S-so you not only did the ponytail and the glasses and the cardigan, you--you--AHAHAHA!"
Sam picks up his bowl and violently shoves the rest of his ingredients into the blender. When Dean's cackles pitch higher, Sam stabs his finger at the Puree button, and the blender roars to life.
Dean keeps on laughing, and Cas's mouth stays all twitchy, like he's barely holding back.
///
Even when the shake’s done, Sam purposely revs the blender motor whenever Dean or Cas open their mouths to speak. After awhile, Dean reaches over and unplugs it with a victorious, Ha!
But Sam keeps on ignoring them as he pours his delicious creation into a large single-serve glass. (No way in Hell is he sharing. Not even if Dean paid him a million dollars.)
"Oh, come on, Sammy. Don't be like that."
Cas raises a brow at Dean. "Maybe we should...'skedaddle.'" At that turn of phrase, Dean looks like he's having the time of his life, like he's a seven year old on his first roller coaster.
Dean makes the purring noise again. "Oh, you. Love it when you talk all stupid n' old-fashioned like that."
If Sam were in a better mood, surely he could find some way to get back at them, or turn it around on them. Instead, he drinks his shake too fast and winds up with a catastrophic ice cream headache.
So, he shoots Cas the bird with his free hand. Because this is mostly Cas's fault for telling. Like the universe is punishing him, the headache gets more intense in his throat. He set his glass down on the counter to press a warm palm against his neck.
Cas looks back to Dean and feints a sultry, distinctly-Justin-Smith-like, "Oh, you."
Dean must pick up that it means something at Sam's expense, so he parrots it back, but even more syrupy. "Oh, you."
Then, Dean does the lameass purr sound again.
(Sam tries to turn on the blender but belatedly remembers that Dean's already unplugged it.)
What happens next is the strangest thing so far.
Cas sets a hand on Dean's shoulder and fires Dean's purr back at him. This time, it's no "rar" but a perfect mimicry of Dean, even rolling his 'r's. The humor drains from Dean's face for some reason, and then Cas's voice drops even lower, towards something like a real growl.
It's maybe too much a shade of non-human, more like a special effect than goofing off. It's kind of scary, to be honest.
Dean drops his eyes to the floor, maybe uncomfortable with how animalistic it sounds? Then, to Sam's surprise, Dean gets a funny little smile on his face and turns the general color of an overcooked lobster.
Wonderingly, Sam thinks he finally has a chance to play the upper hand, but--
"Sam?"
It's Jack, hesitantly standing in the doorway of the kitchen.
Everything comes to a weird standstill as Jack stares blankly at all three of them. Cas doesn't let go of Dean.
Then, Jack asks, like he's not even phased by the awkwardness of it all, "I-is there any more smoothie?"
And instead of seizing the opportunity to warp Dean's playfulness into something that would undoubtedly humiliate someone...
...Sam finds himself hurrying to scrounge up more milkshake ingredients.
SPN 14X15: Peace of Mind- Heaven and Charming Acres (but mostly Cas and Sunny)
Tagging those interested: @evvvissticante @verobatto-angelxhunter @metafest
Spoilers below:
Utopia and Nostalgia
When Heaven was first introduced, it was portrayed very early on as morally ambiguous. Angels are supposed to be good, after all, and it comes as a shock when they're revealed to be warriors of Heaven that even Demons fear.
Charming Acres is a throwback to 1950's ideals, where every man's got a gal, people have morals, and everybody knows each other. However, it's quickly revealed that all is not well.
Obedience
When an Angel expresses doubt, they are reprogrammed by the Host of Heaven, their memories altered or erased. Castiel is infamously the Angel who was made with a crack in his chassis, and corrupted the moment he laid hands on Dean in Hell.
In Charming Acres, everyone is assigned a new name, and a new life. A perfect world constructed by a psychic who sees himself as God. Anyone who enters, and wishes to leave, is promptly killed. Oddly enough, the only person free of the Mayor's control is his daughter, who is also psychic, but clearly doesn't play by the rules, doing things that would be considered scandalous if they were revealed to the rest of the town.
"Scandalous" Actions
Castiel has emotions. Has expressed them for quite some time. Coming from a soldier of Heaven, who once said emotions lead to doubt, and doubt leads to falling, it's amazing to see how far he's come. He's now, several times in S14 alone, said "I love you" to the likes of Jack, Sam and Dean. His showing Human emotion and behavior is only matched by his waning Grace, and if Heaven were not in peril, the Angels wouldn't speak to him, if not hunt him down.
Sunny wasn't what you would call an "innocent" girl. Sending your boyfriend smutty love letters praising his girth is proof of that. But, this isn't the only way she acted out; she went behind her father's back to save her boyfriend, to warn him of the danger he was in. She chose to use her ability to think for herself for good.
Loyalty and Free Will
Even though he rebelled against Heaven, and chose Humanity, Castiel still feels a certain amount of loyalty to his siblings, despite their detesting his choice in company. Over time, he leans more towards found family than the Angelic equivalent of blood, but it's still hard to let go of what's been ingrained in him for years.
Sunny had told her boyfriend she couldn't leave Charming Acres with him, because she'd made a promise to her dead mother to stay with her father. It's not until the end of the episode that she realizes she's not bound by a dead woman's word.
Breaking Away
Naomi demanded Castiel kill Dean back in S8. She even spent a great amount of time brainwashing him, making Castiel act out Dean's murder a thousand times. But, Cas' love and faith in Dean allowed him to break free of Naomi's hold.
Sunny's father told her she was just like him, and that it's her fault her boyfriend died. If she'd only listened and did as her father told, then no one would’ve gotten hurt. It's not until Sunny puts her foot down, all without ending her father's life, is the town safe.
Bonus bit that doesn't fit anywhere else!
Sunny's boyfriend was killed by the high-pitched sound produced by the psychic as he was chasing him down. A sound that not-so-subtly mimics an Angel's true voice.
Yeah, I know that last bit doesn’t fit anywhere else, but to me, it’s the most crucial part of the episode. It sets up the comparisons with Heaven from the very start, and gently guides us, the viewers, where we need to go. Another thing to make note of is that, very recently, Cas himself has been negatively affected by the sound of an Angel’s true voice.
As Rowena said in 14X14, everything means something.
Thank you for reading! Let me know what you thought!
Where is that meta you have where Dean looks up towards Cas for emotional support? I think it's when they're talking to Ketch?
Ohhh. That's from The Spear! I was being very silly about it.
On a more serious note, that whole episode, Dean's leaning on Cas in these big, spousal-coded ways. (That's why I prefer the script on this aspect. Dean was letting Cas drive him to the case in the truck, relying on Cas visually and entrusting Baby with Sam and Jack.)
And honestly, I feel like the script is going out of its way to show us that Cas has been an emotional rock for Dean, both in this and in Peace of Mind, which is what makes The Empty Deal so insidious. It encourages Cas to pull away when his own emotions get overwhelming.
I think this is hinted at in Game Night with Dean's played-for-laughs stress/meltdown at the beginning of the episode. Dean is floundering because he can *feel* Cas's emotional distance. (He always does.) He just doesn't know why the emotional distance has become so inflamed.
EDIT: And on another note, when it comes to AU Michael, I think it's important to acknowledge how desperate Dean is to be safe from that intense violation. As @scoobydoodean pointed out, that desperation to be free from violation/voyeurism is also at play in season 15, giving more weight to Dean's deepening desperation to neutralize the threat of Chuck.
following an idea and going well into the rabbit hole can actually be very rewarding. for instance, my obsession for charming acres (and, more generally, everything pleasantville-like) and angels as generative AI is bearing very good, juicy, summer fruits.
i was obsessing over this character cleverly named "chip" and, thefore, was obsessing over the two related concepts: 1. microchip and computers and 2. humans and machines. interestingly, i discoverd that a key-figure in the design of early microprocessors is Federico Faggin, son of Giuseppe Faggin, a scholar and the first person who translated the "Enneads" by Plotinus into Italian. I'm pointing this out because Faggin Junior is not only a physicist, engineer, inventor and entrepreneur but he's also interested in combining science with spirituality. Unsurprisingly, Faggin's theories can be traced back to Plotinus, Meister Eackhart and western mysticism, the latter being Giuseppe Faggin's general field of expertise.
I'm saying all this because Federico believes in free will and in an ultimate consciousness (which doesn't seem different from Plotinus' "One") that are non-algorithmic. Again, I must say, unsurprisingly (as we are, after all, talking about someone who "invents" stuff), Federico obviously doesn't think that machines can ever become human-like or "better" than humans and that the fundamental problem with AI and other advanced technologies lies in how humans utilize them rather than in a supposed intrinsic quality that these things might have. Ultimately, according to Faggin "free will is the ultimate cause of reality. …Consciousness allows you to understand. Free will is what allows you to choose based on the understanding of reality and what you want.”
ngl, I don't find these concepts super ultra interesting because they seem too simplistic to me (although I'm currently trying to learn more about the subject so maybe I'm a bit too early in my judgment), but I kinda think this is quite cool because this goes hand in hand with my initial theory: author-like angels like Metatron and god/author-like figures like Chuck and Chip will never be able to write a story (=make people do what they want) because they can only write in generative AI mode, or they're algorithmic, that is, in this context, they lack free will. They have a "chip" inside their head that allows them to only think in a binary system (on/off, 0-1 etc).
This is why the story of a character like Castiel is, to me personally, ten times more powerful if I see it as a story about the possibility of learning, feeling, loving outside of the binary. "the making it up as we go" of it all. which, obvi, is something that goes completely against the previously mentioned idea that machines cannot become human, as Cas is a machine-like figure who learns how to feel. But isn't this the power of fiction and human imagination? We might not be able to predict the future but we can imagine infinite futures. So when powerful entities try to colonize our mind and convince us that there's only ONE ending, that we're DOOMED, that there's NOTHING we can do anymore, we can say: "well, ACTUALLY... no!". sadly I can't find my own posts about this stuff about Cas and the power fo imagination (sigh, what's wrong with me and tagging, lol) so I can't link it but I swear it can actually make sense.
just wached an interview in which campbell compared angels to microchips. my charming acres obsession paired with angels as generative ai will now never leave me.
Love that Cas apparently loves Saturday Evening Post/Pottery Barn because it represents "home/hominess" but Cas hates Charming Acres, because it's not his home or the people he loves. <3
