Despite his lack of screen time, I found Sam really sad. He was losing interest in everything. He seems really depressed. He's just ... there. He does not seem really invested, or maybe he is too sad to manage. Idk. He swapped his mood with previous Dean.
You’re 100% right. Sam is sad in this ep and Dean does obviously read it. Look at his face here:
He’s so concerned for Sam. Dean’s back in the role of caretaker, and maybe that’s why he takes Sam out on a hunt, it’s what they fall back on when they need to shake off the introspective drama.
I think there’s a combination of things at play here. @neven-ebrez mentions it in this post and I think it’s legit that the lack of news on Mary is wearing him down. While Dean had his faith restored, Sam seems to be consistently having his torn away from him, particularly when he places it in other people. Maybe that’s the problem, because ultimately Sam isn’t putting faith in himself (or even in Dean, case in point he didn’t listen to Dean’s instinct about Ketch until it was too late).
Sam is entitled to be sad I think. He keeps getting his faith knocked. We’re coming off the end of an episode where Cas came back (and Sam has strong doubts about that even if he’s happy for Dean), but also an episode where we saw him begin to doubt Jack as Dean had. Just look at his face in the scene where Jack levitates the pencil. And then Jack kills a guy. Jack throws them to the ground and flies away. But not before a fight with far, far too much truth in it: Sam’s fear of Jack is part of why Jack leaves. Sam feels like a failure, like he messed up with this important world endingly dangerous job he took on for himself. Sam was the one who made using his power such a quality for Jack, something he should aspire to, and it ostensibly led to this, to a man dying and Jack blaming himself. So Sam’s perceived failure with Jack feeds back into undermining his own self belief (and the belief that he thinks Dean has in him as well, I think).
So it’s already pretty rough for him, and then Ketch comes along and Sam is once again wrong with his instincts. He flips to Dean’s side quickly enough, but it’s already too late, and I think we really, really have to see how Sam getting his faith knocked is going to come into the next few episodes, especially if they end up in the AU.
But Mary. Sam misses Mary, and he missed his opportunity with her as he said, and what Sam has is absent parent figures. I just watches 2x02 which ends on Sam admitting that he misses John and missed the chance to have a good relationship with him. He feels guilty. Now here’s Mary and she and Sam don’t have the same past as Sam had with John, but Sam still struggles to bond with her, struggles to have a relationship with her, and she disappears before he can get what he needs out of it. It’s tragic. As Sam says back in 2x02 “I’m not okay”, and he is not okay now either.
Or: Oh to be a fly on the wall while these two sit and chat together...
I just read this great Cas meta here and wanted to write something I’ve been thinking about for a while.
For me it’s a classic example of using something that’s completely alien as a study on humanity. You get this moving toward being more human arc while actually trying to reconnect with the things he loves about his own kind. Cas doesn’t want the angels to go extinct. He doesn’t want to lead them to fix themselves either, he wants to be his own man with his own choices, and his own future.
I’m a big fan of these kinds of arcs. Coming out of the fandoms I have, story arcs that are about questions of humanity, inhumanity and what it means to be somewhere in between fascinate me. (Buffy, Heroes; Smallville; DCU) I’m going to talk about the later because imo Castiel’s arc is very much like some of Superman’s arcs. It also helps that both Supes and Cas are given the sunshine/Jesus sort of symbology about them.
Supes’ heart was always in the right place, but his struggles with his own kind always came courtesy of their sense of superiority. Here were the last survivors of the Kryptonian race, and they felt like it was their role to conquer the human race and take over/rule the planet. Their abilities made them superior, after all. But Supes, who was raised on Earth, views his powers as one part something allowing him to help humanity and one part a burden, because they make him different (a “freak”. As Smallville Clark says at one point “I just want to get through high school”.) It isn’t imo that Supes does actually want to be human any more than Castiel does, or Buffy, or any of the characters of Heroes who struggle with their powers, because they all have the potential to use their powers for good, but they are desperate to fit in as well; some want a home, some want to be normal, and in Cas’ case this nomad just wants somewhere to belong.
But as I say, Castiel and Superman have this thing in common specifically because their own kind become the enemy. And because their own kind are so small in number, Supes (and Cas) have no desire to hurt or kill them, and endeavor to only do enough to escape/convince them to stop/etc. The problem with that is the morality of Kryptonians and Angels who aren’t raised on Earth, who haven’t had a human story of their own, is that convincing them to stop or that there’s another way isn’t something they have a moral understanding of--not really. They just aren’t equipped to understand it from Supes/Cas’ point of view. Consequently, the fight typically goes one sided because Supes is thinking I can’t hurt them, they’re all that’s left.
[x]
“For every human you save, we will kill a million more.”
There’s something very tragic about that. It’s like that old adage that you can choose your friends but you’re stuck with your family. In this case, and in Castiel’s, Supes chooses his family too. He can’t avoid the fact that he isn’t human, of course, and it dogs him existentially, but he chooses to be as close to human as he can be, chooses to live a human life, take a human wife, celebrate with his human parents.
So what does this have to do with Cas? Well, you know, Cas has hit a lot of the same storylines that Supes has. He’s been asked to be a warrior for his people, to be a leader, to be everything other than what it always comes back to that he wants to be, and over the years he has given everything - even his life - flown into the sun, questioned why he’s doing these things and what it’s all for, even going through a depression arc of his own. But ultimately - like Castiel - Supes can’t help himself helping people. It’s just who he is.
Supes chooses his family and not his actual blood time and time again. The situation anon mentioned came to a head because Castiel was rejecting Heaven.
And then there’s Dean dropping ‘family’ and ‘team’ and ‘home’ and ‘brother’ into every other sentence these days...
[x]
Cas has claimed the boys as his family too. He told them that he loves them. So why does he then accept Heaven’s offer to work with them again back in season 12? Because saying and doing a thing are two different things. (Edit: As @tinkdw reminds me, Cas makes this decision to protect Dean and Sam. It’s a visibly difficult choice for him to make, once again taking the (cosmic) consequences onto his own shoulders). In any case this fight scene in 13x07 is great because we see him doing. He makes his choice and it’s not Heaven. It’s with the boys. It’s as part of TFW, and consequently Cas spends the rest of the episode trying to get back to them (though to be fair he’s been doing exactly that since 13x03)
[x]
This is great because when Castiel accepts his place and is able to say outright ‘this is my place’ instead of having it thrown in his face that he doesn’t belong, he will be able to move forward - like Supes does - and deal with the problem of his people being on the brink of extinction, for example. It’s like every battle Supes has with Zod or Lex Luther or anyone else: his otherness is used as a weapon, and ultimately it is his sameness which grounds him and allows him to fight for what he loves and what he believes in. Finally, at some point in the fight, someone threatens something human about Superman, whether it’s his secret identity, or Lois, or the Daily Planet or the Kent Farm or the entire Earth. Whatever it is, Superman then uses his humanity to overcome his enemy. So I can’t hurt them, they’re all that’s left succumbs to you won’t hurt them, they’re all I have. How many times can Castiel’s humanity be highlighted, punctuated or threatened before he accepts it and loves it as part of himself, and cherishes it consequently as something to protect not something to be ashamed of? That, I think, is the ultimate goal here.
So speculation, because it is speculation: that’s where Cas’ storyline is leading: toward humanity and yet not, but mainly toward his acceptance of self. Then he can help fix the angels, help solve the Lucifer problem, help Jack etc. Like I said, he’s so close! He wants to get back to the boys. And look how warm and confident he is when talking to Jack. Cas is just learning where his priorities are, and sparing the angels at great risk to himself is part of that, because honestly it’s what Superman would do.
(And let’s face it, Supes is plenty BAMF when people threaten Ma Kent or Lois Lane, so I don’t think that part of him is going away.)
God I love stories about humanity and found family. Like. Give me all of them. Now.
Sam’s mirror conversation in this episode. I mean. It is literally framed like a mirror, and then they play the thoughtful music over it. I think this scene might have originally been longer, but the boys were edged out of the episode to make room for all the other threads of it, and for extra time to convince you that Cas could conceivably sit a few inches away from Lucifer without stabbing out both his eyes...
Ketch: So even though you and your brother both saw my brother Arthur shot point blank, you still question his demise?
Sam: Well it’s probably smart to question everything about Arthur Ketch.
Ketch: Probably yes. I know I’m still trying to figure him out.
Sam: The Arthur Ketch we knew was sadistic, amoral, predatory, loyal to no-one
Ketch: You’re wrong there. Not amoral and actually loyal to a fault. What you witnessed was an incredibly good company man; not an easy job.
Sam: Sounds like it would be easier to be Alexander, then, than Arthur?
Ketch: To a degree. No glory, yes, but no burdens either.
Sam: Hm. [pause, music rises] You admire him. Maybe wanted to be like him?
Ketch: Like you I understood my brother’s issues and why he did what he did. I suspect if he were here he’d admit regret to some of the things he did to your family.
Sam has a lot of these mirror conversations over the years, it’s almost sometimes like he goes into conversations to get them (Sarah in S1 for example since I just watched it the other day). Sam is in trouble here you see, because he’s connecting emotionally with Ketch, making it about himself. “Maybe wanted to be like him?” He gets burned ultimately when it’s revealed that Ketch was lying all along, but Sam wants to believe because his research led him to those conclusions. Dean had the instinct, and Sam lets Ketch under his skin, puts faith in him that isn’t deserved.
It’s similar to the faith he put in Jack, and that’s what it’s drawing attention to; Sam needed this example in order to underline how it’s not functional to believe what’s on the surface level, the story as it seems on paper.
The fact is that this conversation in retrospect could only have been had with Arthur. It’s fascinating. But honestly I think there’s more to this, and more to the way that Ketch tried to create emotional connections with the Winchesters (in this conversation playing up the brother connection and by saving them). There’s a motive beyond what we’ve seen already.
P.S. They’re using this room with the freestanding table a lot. It’s the room Jack was studying in.
Quick SPN thoughts while my brain is still fresh and before the coffee that sustained me up to 3.30am finally expires:
Lots of Misha, and he really had to work hard in it too because he had to convince people that he DID want to stab Lucifer in the face even though the writing was restraining him. On the rewatch you’ll catch his exasperation far better.
Dean cottons on to Ketch right away, is suspicious of him from the Mary thing all the way through, watches him fight, and the “your angel” seals it.
Redemption/Shades of Grey were POWERFUL in this ep. You had Lucifer questioning good and evil, pointing out Michael to Kevin and Cas as actually evil, you had Ketch and Dean and Cas and Lucifer (I mean Ketch did not have to go to the bar and save the Winchester’s asses by any means).
A made up story which looks super convincing on the surface but that’s all it is. What you see isn’t necessarily the truth, it just looks like the truth.
Even more clanging hints that Rowena is coming back.
They kept the Ketch secret SO WELL. I did see his name in the credits but I momentarily blanked on who he was whoops. (I hateship Dean/Ketch a little so I’m delighted to have more canon to work from)
Dean cocking that gun. Not only the ‘don’t do anything stupid’ but the ‘don’t do anything stupid part deux redux’. Awesome.
Kevin just wanting to go to paradise so he can get laid. I missed Kevin so much he’s such a breath of fresh air.
P.S. Michael is terrifying, keep him away from Dean D=
I enjoyed watching Lucifer suffer. I mean I would rather have the Lucifer thing done with but I enjoyed watching him suffer with his depleted grace, and I think a little bit of a Cas did too...
Speaking of Cas. Emotions. There’s so much movement in him now that it amazes me every time. Gone is the stoic stone faced angel or any hint of him.
Not much Sam, it’s true. But Sammy was fighting a demon with a flashlight at one point? Also the scene where he sat opposite Ketch and mirrored him and they talked about sociopathy and forgiveness... Also this was more evidence of Sam making unwise leaps of faith but it got us the scene with the sandwich and Ketch like O.O at Dean and I sort of...adored that.
The goddamn motorcycle finally leaves the garage and it’s not Dean riding it. Damn it.
Pacing was awesome.
Fight scene was superb
Cas my darling angel behind actual not metaphorical prison bars. and yet. while Asmodeus shapeshifts his voice to “Hello Dean” on the phone krrrrgh there’s something there I’m too tired to pull it apart. (We did guess Asmodeus as lust would use shapeshifting Cas on Dean at some point)
I also appreciate that Cas is not on some freaking mission for the next four episodes and not checking in with Sam and Dean but is in fact being kept apart from them against his will. Please give me a ‘you’re a little short for a stormtrooper’ moment, or let Cas break himself out, cause either is fine with me.
Noma the betraying angel (In Dominion Noma turns against the good guys i.e. Michael and joins Lucifer. I mean. And then it was cancelled)
The angels are ALMOST EXTINCT and Jack might be able to make more?! Er yes? I think I’ve been thinking this for a while and I am excited it’s become text. Even though it was actually a whole Bucklemming dubcon thing.
And Asmodeus was an upstart who has no actual respect for Lucifer at all. /whistles innocently. what? I mean that was obvious from him trying to do what Lucifer legit punished him for doing the moment Daddy was gone, right?
Also final note: I think that for this episode (being so high intensity, fast paced and dropping wtf side plot on people) airing on Thanksgiving when folks are trashed and tired and grumpy was a mistake.
GORDON: Know why I love this life?
DEAN: Hmm?
GORDON: It's all black and white. There's no maybe. You find the bad thing, kill it. See, most people spend their lives in shades of gray. Is this right? Is that wrong? Not us.
DEAN: Not sure Sammy would agree with you, but uh...
This episode is a big shades of grey ep, and we got referenced back to it in this episode by Ketch, before we got asked to look at his shades of grey. nbd. Sam and Dean have been on a long road to where they are, they’ve hurt good people, gotten people killed, and Dean calls them monsters (and it’s the truth), but they’re still ‘the good guys’ right? good and evil are subjective and this show still pivots on the same questions it was asking 12 seasons ago.
Ketch: Isn’t that what we hunters do? Kill the bad thing?
I thought it was just clunky dialogue. /rolls eyes at self.
Close to the bars. This was his prison, his penance, what could have been and what was. He’d been here before, of course, but he’d been inside a different prison then; his own body, incarceration of his own making. Not Hell but close enough. Hell of his own making.
This Hell, though, was other people.
The cell alongside his own was occupied. Rattling bones, rattling cages, a depowered, pacing archangel rambled on; a gnat in his head that would not shut up for all the many hours that they were alone. No wonder the Empty had thrown him out, he’d clearly been channeling Lucifer. It was ceaseless. Unbearable. Castiel considered dragging his ears back and forth along the rough stone wall until he’d worn them off completely. Knowing his luck, he’d still be able to hear Lucifer even then.
“This is your fault, Castiel. Don’t you understand how important this mission is? We have to stop Michael.”
He resisted the urge to bite out a reply, having learned better the last time. “You should have let me speak to Sam and Dean earlier,” was what he wanted to say now—earlier he’d stuck with “How is it my fault?” in the vain belief that fewer words opened him up to less scrutiny. He’d wished he hadn’t spoken at all.
How had he ended up in this mess?
Oh, that was right, he’d left Dean. And for what? He should have known that his fellow angels were irredeemable, that they would attempt to double-cross him when they got him alone. But they had been his family for so long now, millennia, and he still longed for them to change with him. How long had he felt like an outcast, an aberration, less than?—but he was not less than. He would not sleep, would not be caged; this he knew. He would fight and fight; fight Hell and fight Heaven and fight Eternity itself…
God, he had felt so invulnerable when he’d woken in that field. He’d forgotten that the world hadn’t chosen to be better alongside him. There was still so much suffering, so much guilt, so much pain…
So much longing.
Dean…
He closed his eyes and sucked in a deep breath, tearing his mind away from the direction in which it was drifting. Feeling Dean’s loss had almost ripped the earth from beneath him the moment his feet had touched it, and he could sense his confusion and loss now as well, tugging fiercely at his centre. There was no distraction here to break him from the sensation, no blinking lights or moving cars, wind, rain or bees; nothing but Lucifer whining on the other side of the bars. If only it were as easy to block that out.
Thank all that was unholy for Asmodeus and his whims. Though he felt the slightest pity for Lucifer when he was dragged away by the demon’s cronies, at least it brought him some peace.
He should have known it wouldn’t last.
“Chin up, Halo.”
Or not.
Blue eyes were watching him from the end of the hall. Ketch. He bristled fiercely at the intrusion. This man… He was no friend to him or the Winchesters. Manipulative, with an undercurrent of something cold that ruffled Castiel’s feathers far too easily, just as it had the first time they’d met.
“What do you want?”
“Is it so hard to imagine I came down here seeking intelligent company?”
“Yes,” Castiel replied, without hesitation.
“You wound me,” Ketch answered.
Castiel was tempted to ask him what he wanted again, but instead he held his tongue. Ketch would explain himself sooner if he wasn’t bickering with him over his pride.
“Asmodeus has it wrong,” Ketch finally said, after studying him for a minute. “Lucifer isn’t the key to finding Jack. You are.”
It took all the effort in Castiel’s being not to expose his fears in his stance. The natural tension across his shoulders was inevitable otherwise.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s Asmodeus’ belief that you’re a pawn to use if the Winchesters get in our way. But you’re not. You’re a pawn to use if the Winchesters get there first. Which they will, of course…”
“You sound certain.”
“Please. Who single-handedly drove the Men of Letters out of the States? Averted an Apocalypse or two? I have great faith in your tartan besotted friends.”
Castiel flickered his eyes over Ketch’s face. Intelligent conversation. Now he understood. Ketch wasn’t wrong; if anyone was going to find Jack, Sam and Dean would. They cared about him, something that neither the angels, Asmodeus or Lucifer seemed capable of.
“And?”
“And when the Winchesters find Jack, we’ll offer them a trade.”
An icy chill settling somewhere between his shoulder blades, Castiel forced himself to turn away.
“They won’t trade me for Jack. You’re wrong.”
Ketch tutted, then, with a rich laugh he stepped closer. “More fool you if you truly believe that.”
The wall was superbly interesting. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“When I was briefed on what we would be facing here, I was told all about angels – what we know of your kind. The Men of Letters have experimented in depth over the centuries, after all, how else would we have developed the weapons we had against you?”
“Experimented…?” Castiel turned back toward Ketch, shaken. “That’s not possible. We would have known if even one of us had been taken.”
“Would you? It seems to me that you only ever know what you’re supposed to know. You’re marionettes, nothing more.”
“Not any more. No, the civil war in Heaven put paid to that, didn’t it? Fine. You’re machines, then, programmed for each mission with one singular goal--”
“The way you programmed Mary,” Castiel interrupted.
At mention of Mary’s name, something unknowable crossed Ketch’s expression. Castiel probed, but met resistance both physical and mental, Ketch rapping the bars with the butt of his gun. “Uh uh uh. None of that. You’re not welcome in my head, angel.”
Castiel glowered, but sank back a little, his fury ebbing as he looked around his cage again. He needed to get out of here. He needed to get back to Dean.
“As I was saying,” Ketch continued. “Your kind are defunct; programmed for war with nothing to fight. Things that don’t evolve are bound to die out. Speaking as a soldier myself, of course…”
Bristling particularly at the effort to forge himself as some kind of mirror for him, Castiel turned away again. Perhaps what was annoying him so much was how much Ketch was right? He saw it too: the angels had no purpose. What was the goal in creating new angels if there was nothing to fight, if the gates to Heaven remained closed? Worse, his brothers and sisters seemed incapable of learning: presented with the same questions they always answered in the same way, no matter how foolish that choice had been the first time: with revenge and desperation forefront in their minds.
“But there is potential in your species,” Ketch continued, speaking at the back of Castiel’s head. “For emotion, for feeling; a kind of humanity. You see, little secret between you and me? It starts with fear, and all angels are capable of that under the right circumstances.”
Castiel shook off the discomfort imbued by the words “the right circumstances”, disgusted for what he was sure his kin had suffered at the hands of the Men of Letters. Fear? No, if that was all it was then the angels would have learned to embrace humanity as he had a long time ago. Fear was not the key to all of this. There was something missing.
A pang of longing.
Of course. Dean’s soul, bright as a comet tail spitting iron and ice, just as strong and burning hot and fierce against his hand. It was not only Dean who had burned when they had touched; not only Dean who had been changed.
“You’re wrong,” he said, confidently.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Is it because all you’ve ever known is fear?”
Ketch snarled, curling his lip. He changed tack with sufficient ferocity to knock Castiel back a step. “Dean Winchester loves you.”
When Castiel didn’t answer, Ketch moved closer to the bars, his eyes narrowing fiercely. “That’s right. He loves you, and not as a brother, either.”
Castiel made a mirthless sound. “And I suppose he told you this?”
“He didn’t have to.”
Castiel snorted, meeting Ketch’s gaze defiantly. “Then I have absolutely no issue informing you of your mistake.”
“Is that right?” Ketch drawled, obviously unshaken by the accusation. “How can you be so certain?”
“Why should I tell you?”
Ketch shrugged, as though he had no answer. Castiel could have left it at that, he supposed, but in truth he longed to voice his doubt. Yes, perhaps he was addressing it with the wrong person, but Ketch had raised the topic, and he seemed to have some small insight.
And Castiel needed this. The confusion he felt was unbearable. Dean longed for him with increasing intensity, even now, and not in the same way that he felt about his brother. But that was what he called him: buddy, brother, pal. Each epithet was more painful than the last.
“When humans love each other, they tell them.”
It was a mistake to speak at all. Ketch eyed him like he was a particularly delicious looking peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The Brit’s nostrils flared, as though the truth had a scent, chin raising incrementally.
“He hasn’t told you…” Ketch’s eyes narrowed to slits. “--So you think he doesn’t.”
Castiel felt ashamed. There was mockery in Ketch’s tone, and it went right down to his bones. Was this just another thing that he didn’t understand? Was he so useless, such a failure, that even Ketch could see the truth of Dean that Castiel – who otherwise knew him so well – couldn’t?
“He would have told me,” Castiel repeatedly, trying to wrestle certainty back into his voice.
“Are you so very certain he hasn’t?” A pause as Ketch let that sink in. “You’re a fool, Castiel. Dean is a soldier. All he’s ever known in his life is pain. The people who love him always leave him, and his worth is counted in the lives he’s saved. Does that sound like someone who is likely to leave himself vulnerable so very easily?”
Castiel knew those things. Of course he did. But it was another thing to have Ketch speak them out loud, boring down into him, into the soul he didn’t have, with such sharp efficiency that it almost felt as though he were using a blade rather than words.
“He’s probably said it to you, right to your face, and you didn’t even notice.” Ketch chuckled. “Angels. Always so literal...”
Grimacing, Castiel kept his eyes on the wall. He couldn’t stand to look into Ketch’s face, didn’t wish to witness his cruel, broad grin spreading with certainty that his guess regarding the Winchesters was right. Let him believe what he wished. Castiel could only hope that they wouldn’t think to trade Jack for him. Jack deserved better.
Ketch’s laughter went with him, but Castiel was left imprisoned with longing; Dean’s longing, as always, and his own—and this time the questions in his head could not be silenced: If Dean wanted him so badly, if Dean loved him so very badly, then why didn’t he say so?
Or was it that all those prayers over the years - all the longing he’d felt, the relief, the embraces, the gifts - were those a declaration that he had simply been incapable of understanding?
Woke up aware of something. This is either the biggest plot hole Bucklemming have created ever or I’m calling bullshit on him being on the run from the MOL (and I really wanted to believe it so I’m leaning toward plot hole).
It’s just.
The MOL recruit from Kendrick’s Academy, right? So how could the cover story of a Ketch twin attending Kendricks ever run with them? Surely some of them would have attended school with Ketch and therefore they know that there’s only one asshole version of him?
