spn20rewatch: 3.16 no rest for the wicked
there is something so raw and animalistic about this episode opening with dean running frantically through the woods trying to escape the hellhounds. he is being hunted - not by demons with a plan but by dogs. he's prey. he's food.
i mentioned that 1.18 feels like an episode that helps organize all the characterization and narrative that has come before or will come after. that's how I feel about 3.16 as well. it contains so many little moments of patterns and themes which trace their fingers throughout spn.
not to belabor the point but again again dean is right about ruby. and he's so sure he's right he's willing to risk his own death to keep sam safe from her manipulation. there is something so soft about the way dean is begging both sam and bobby not to go off unprepared on this risky plan just to save him.
DEAN: What's the problem? Come on, where do I begin? I mean, first of all, we don't even know if Lilith holds my deal. We're going off of Bela's intel? Now when that bitch breathes, the air comes out crooked. Okay. Second, even if we could get to Lilith, we have no way to gank her. And third, isn't this the same Lilith that wants your giant head on a pike? Should I continue? BOBBY: Ain't you just bringing down the room. DEAN: Yeah, well, it's a gift. SAM: I'm sorry, so then what are we supposed to do, Dean? DEAN: Just 'cause I gotta die doesn't mean you have to, okay. Either we go in smart or we don't go in at all.
Dean's focus for a lot of this episode is trying to find a way to break the deal-making cycle he feels his family is trapped in. like my god. the layers to that. and the fact that he's fine with his death being what ends it. that that would be worth it.
DEAN: Don't you see a pattern here? Dad's deal, my deal, now this? I mean every time one of us is – is – is up the creek the other is begging to sell their soul. That's all this is, man. Ruby's just jerking your chain down the road. You know what it's paved with and you know where it's going.
i'm not claiming that dean never angrily raises his voice throughout this episode when sam and bobby are doing or suggesting things that scare him. but for the most part, his tone is soft. is pleading. he knows he's a pawn being moved on the board and he's desperately begging the people around him not to play the game.
if he has to die, so be it. but he wants it to end there. he wants his family's ensnarement in violence and revenge and sacrifice to end there. (a fascinating theme to think about for the upcoming seasons).
DEAN: Oh, bite me. I totally rehearsed that speech, too.
(*through wailing blubbers that make the words nearly unintelligible* he... rehearsed... the... speech.)
another example of repeat patterns is dean once again dealing with the corpses. sure he, sam, and bobby all conceal the cop's car and presumably corpse. but in the demon cul-de-sac, it's dean we see dragging a demon's body off into the bushes. less than an hour from his own death and he's the designated mortician. jesus.
he's also the designated bait. both when they're trying to infiltrate the town. and earlier when he intentionally provokes ruby into beating him up so he can lure her under a devil's trap and steal the demon knife.
before the hellhounds even get him, his face is still all cut up from her wailing on him.
RUBY: Oh, oh you – so you're just too stupid to live, is that it? Then fine! You deserve hell! I wish I could be there, Dean. I wish I could smell the flesh sizzle off your bones! I WISH I COULD BE THERE TO HEAR YOU SCREAM!! DEAN: And I wish you'd shut your pie hole, but we don't always get what we want.
we don't always get what we want. :(
of course the similarity between dean singing along to bon jovi in 3.16 just long enough to get sam to look away and start singing along so dean can let the fear slip back onto his face is so like dean practicing a smile in 7.11. what these private expressions reveal about the performance. the way the forced smiles slip off his face. the quaking lip. so so so much of dean is missed if you only look at how he is when he's "got his game face on" (2.03).
i'm sure folks who are more adept at symbolism could do a very interesting analysis about the impala's broken headlight at the end of the pilot versus it's broken taillight here. to me, it feels like the difference between heading into the future, a little worse for wear but still moving forward, and the moment where the past catches up to you.
and well, that's what this is.
SAM: Don't, Dean! I'm not gonna let you go to hell, Dean! DEAN: Yes, you are! ... Yes, you are.
his voice here actually ACTUALLY destroys me. he wants it to be over. he is trying to end the cycle as best as he can. and then, the next kicker, the next pattern; he apologizes:
DEAN: I'm sorry. I mean this is all my fault, I know that.
like to be crystal fucking clear. he's apologizing for the fact that he sold his soul to save sam's life and now he's going to hell. dean is apologizing to sam for that fact that dean is going to hell. i mean he's apologizing because sam is sad about it. but like you cannot in all seriousness claim dean doesn't take accountability for his actions or other people's emotions. he is both going to hell to save sam AND apologizing to sam about it.
and speaking of sam, lilith starts to assault him and immediately dean is needling her to try and move attention off sam (we see this also in 3.08 - dean's pattern of even when they're cornered trying to get the focus off sam and onto himself, usually by mouthing off).
DEAN: So, is this your big plan, huh? Drag me to hell. Kill Sam. And then what? Become queen bitch?
lilith replies, "I don't have to answer to puppy chow."
and so we circle back to dean as prey. he's splayed across the dining room table. he's food. the dogs catch him and. he's dinner.
dean screaming for help, strung up in hell gets me in the gut every time. and brings us to the the last pattern. dean dies wearing three layers on top - t-shirt, flannel, jacket. but he wakes up in hell in just the t-shirt. stripped down to just one, nearly torn to shreds.
in 2.14 meg describes the situation that led to bill harvelle's death like this:
That's just like John. Oh, I'll bet he dangled Bill like meat on a hook.