Feb 24, 2025
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Episode 112: 6.08 All Dogs Go To Heaven
(except these dogs, because they're actually monsters, but purgatory probably needs doggos too so...)
I am not gonna sugar coat this one. It's... not good lol. Like it's one of the episodes I'd repeatedly forget existed at all until it came back up on the rewatch. Unfortunately I've rewatched the series so many times now that I'm incapable of forgetting it exists now.
Like all the worst episodes, though, there's like three minutes at the end of the episode that's actually too important to overlook as character/meta/overarching narrative plot points, and I did my best to not talk about it out of order. I mean, I had to suffer through this one (several times, thanks to having to edit it lol), so it's only fair that everyone has to hear about the weird dogs.
I do appreciate this one for demonstrating just how not-great Soulless!Sam as a hunter... Since everyone from Bobby to Samuel has been saying all season that Sam has been an incredible hunter over the last year, it's really satisfying to have some direct evidence that hooboy... being uncaring and ruthless is a terrible, terrible hunting strategy. So that's something, I guess.
Anyway, have some LINKS!
The Superwiki Page
My tag
Filming locations map
An interview with Jared and Jensen pre-s6 by KSite TV
CW Promo
SpaceTV Promo
SpaceTV teaser clip
Listen now on Spotify, or wherever you enjoy podcasts!
I've done a lot worse than you know. I've killed innocent people in the line of duty. ... And maybe I should feel guilty. But I don't.
6x08 - All Dogs Go to Heaven
But! Isn’t this also an explanation for cas not understanding how dean feels for him?? He’s like dean feels friendship sooo deeply. Did I miss this??
LOL RIGHT?!
Like, something about being an angel, about having grace gives him the understanding that Dean feels so deeply, but blocks him from experiencing what those feelings are actually like. I’m sure he remembers feeling things when he was human, but just like he mourned the loss of being able to experience the flavor of a PBJ, I think he doesn’t really have the capability to feel those feelings himself.
And Jack was a perfect example of this.
Jack: Why didn't I get it? I mean, my mother died, too. Why didn't I understand? It was my fault.
He realizes instantly, with his soul back to feel those things, exactly how cruel he seemed, how indifferent. It’s something he struggled with in 14.20, as well:
JACK: My grandmother said I killed her -- my mom. And I did. Just by being born.CAS: Jack...JACK: I used to hate myself for it. But I don't feel that way anymore. (They stop walking. Birds are chirping, cawing) I don't feel anything.
and
JACK: Mary was a mistake. But ever since then, I've tried to do the right thing -- except for Dumah.CASTIEL: She, um... She led you astray. JACK: And then I tried on my own, but every time I try, it -- it never goes right. It never... All I ever wanted was to be good. But now I'm just... empty. Even this -- I know you're here because you love me, and I want to love you back. It's just... I can't.
Like soulless!Sam said to Dean at the end of 6.08:
Sam: You wanted the real me. This is it. I don't care about them. I don't even really care about you. Except that... I need your help. And you're clearly not gonna stick around for much longer unless I give it to you straight, so... I've done a lot worse than you know. I've killed innocent people in the line of duty. But I'm pretty sure it's not something the old me could've done. And maybe I should feel guilty. But I don't.
Like Demon!Dean in 10.03, who lacked all emotional attachment to anything-- Sam, Baby, Cas... because without that essential spark of humanity, there may be intellectual understanding, or even a memory of having felt those things before, but understanding the feeling itself is ephemeral. Maybe impossible.
Jack intellectually knew what it felt like to lose his own mother, and was still unable to extrapolate that grief to understand Sam and Dean’s loss, and the blame they laid on him for what happened to Mary. And he clearly has been struggling with that-- perhaps struggling with his own inability to feel how he knows he should about all of this (touching Mary’s initials carved in the library table, for example), and yet feeling it was impossible until his humanity was restored.
And... I think this is what Cas will realize, through Jack’s restored humanity... because Jack is the mirror...
So unless they’ve decided to hammer on this issue for Cas all season-- and really for the last many seasons-- only to yank the rug out from under him at the end of the road, then yeah... this is what he must understand about himself, and about Dean. And about why Dean still thinks he was an idiot to risk going into the empty, even if he did come back with an answer to their problem. Cas just doesn’t have the equipment currently to understand Dean’s feelings here.
(or he does have the equipment, buried under the overwhelming power of his grace.)
Dedicated to @rizlow1 ♡
6.08, All Dogs Go To Heaven (aka that episode I always forget even exists until I'm forced to watch it again... it's probably for the best)
What my main takeaway from this episode was this go-around was the difference in Sam once he completely drops the facade that he's a real boy and just... stops trying to pretend he's human. Because D:
It's a similar shift to what we saw in Jack after he pops out of the Ma'lak box. For very different reasons, Jack believes there's no going back for him, that his family will never accept him again, while Sam felt the truth coming out here as more of a relief...
Sam: Um, all that 'blah, blah, blah,' about being the old me? Crap. Like Lisa and Ben, right? I've been acting like I care about them. But I don't. I couldn't care less. Dean: Is this supposed to make me feel better? Sam: You wanted the real me. This is it. I don't care about them. I don't even really care about you. Except that... I need your help. And you're clearly not gonna stick around for much longer unless I give it to you straight, so... I've done a lot worse than you know. I've killed innocent people in the line of duty. But I'm pretty sure it's not something the old me could've done. And maybe I should feel guilty. But I don't.
There's so many levels of manipulation and deception going on here despite the unburdening of truth between Sam and Dean. They're being manipulated by Crowley who has them running errands and collecting alpha monsters for him with the promise they can "earn" Sam's soul back this way. Meanwhile Crowley sends them on a hunt for a supposed werewolf that turns out to be a skinwalker. And it's not just one skinwalker, but an entire pack of them infiltrating a town (and other towns all over), pretending to be innocent household pets, just waiting for the signal to turn their entire families and unleash a massive influx of new skinwalkers into the world. It's kind of unsettling to think about, considering they already heard from the Alpha Vampire that he's effectively on a recruiting drive as well. What other monsters are flooding the world, unseen, lying in wait.
We saw a similar escalation in monster behavior from the opposite side of the coin during s12, as a reaction to the BMoL attempted genocide. And again in s14 as Michael's chosen army. I wonder what the monster reaction will be during s15...
But Dean absolutely does not trust Sam, whose usual powers of projection (because heck this is why my tag for the differences between the brothers is "sam sympathizes and dean empathizes") and his memory of how he personally would've reacted in a given situation are all he has to work with in the absence of his soul.
SAM: She's lying. DEAN: You heard the kid, dude. She's not lying. SAM: Fine. She still had time to wolf out, Dean. The last werewolf was in bed, with me, and she wolfed out. DEAN: Don't make this personal. Look, all I'm saying is that between this and the daylight attacks, something's not adding up. I'm not just gonna hand her over to Crowley until we figure out what. You understand? SAM: Okay. Okay. I understand. How 'bout you go check out Cal's crime scene, see if we're missing anything. I'll come back and keep an eye on Amanda. DEAN: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. No, how 'bout you go and I'll stay here? SAM: Dean, I still know how to do my job. I'm just gonna watch her. That's all. Trust me.
spoiler alert: she was not lying. she wasn't a werewolf. In fact, NOBODY in this episode was a werewolf. Sam's instincts were really just that bad... His default assumption that everyone else was just as deceptive, just as manipulative, and just as self-centered as he was without his soul honestly tells us a lot about how Sam normally functions-- by projecting his own thoughts and feelings onto a situation and the people he interacts with in order to understand-- while Dean separates out his own thoughts and feelings to "cold read" people and situations without having to filter them through the lens of his own experience.
SAM: I'd double-cross us. I mean, he's got to realize that's his best bet, if he wants to keep breathing. DEAN: Nah, he'll go through with it. SAM: You mean 'cause he loves that family? DEAN: Yeah. SAM: I'd double-cross us. DEAN: Thanks, Dexter. That's reassuring. SAM: Just making conversation.
Sam then urges Dean to shoot the bad guy even though the innocent woman and her child are blocking his shot. I mean... human lives mean absolutely nothing to him. It's freaking CHILLING.
Which is exactly the sort of soulless trait that Dumah attempted to exploit in Jack. Sure, she had to cloak it under the guise of "Sam and Dean would approve," but it's still exactly the same thought process for Sam here. I can't imagine that Sam wasn't thinking exactly of this mentality when he resigned himself to Dean's solution to dealing with Jack in 14.19...
Surprise, surprise. I’m still watching the tnt loop (it never ends! like a looping loop!). Today we’re strolling through early s8. And here we are at 8.06, with Sam and Dean standing out front of a barbecue place with this sign:
which also happened to feature prominently at the beginning of 6.08, in the scene where Crowley proved to Sam and Dean that he essentially owned them while Sam was soulless (he was lying about having Sam’s soul, and his ability to return said soul to Sam, but the fact remains the angry pig sign watched their fallacious negotiations):
Angry Pig presided over Crowley’s manipulative negotiations, where he lied and deceived the Winchesters into hunting for what he’d told them was a werewolf that turned out to be a skinwalker. (yeah, I know, I always forget this episode exists, too). And in 8.06, Angry Pig presided over Sam and Dean’s conversation over what happened in the previous few episodes, about Dean keeping secrets from him-- particularly about Benny, and the fact that Dean is continuing to associate with Benny despite the fact he’s a vampire.
In another callback to s6 in that scene, Dean finds a new case for them to work during the ten minutes Sam’s gone buying food for them. Sam expresses the same sort of wtf that Dean did when soulless “Robo Sam” found a new case for them so quickly in 6.03, which Dean questioned in the same way that Sam questioned Dean finding that case in 8.06.
And all of that s6 stuff was about deceptions and false fronts (i.e. Sam not telling Dean something was wrong with him, and 6.03 we learn that Cas was also avoiding telling them there were Big Doings Afoot).
So I think Angry Pig connects these two themes quite nicely. Kinda hoping we don’t see him again in s13... but we know we’ll be seeing the TDK Slammer again, which had almost the opposite effect-- i.e. Dean in mourning, finally saying a few things out loud under the influence of the drug in the sandwich...
Okay back to 8.06: It’s also touching on grief and letting go, partly about Cas still being in Purgatory, but primarily focusing on Bobby via Garth doing his best to fill the gap in the hunting community left behind after Bobby died, and Dean disappeared in Purgatory for a year. (and Sam left hunting entirely). Most of s8 up to this point has been Sam reluctantly following Dean on hunts while trying to stay focused on finding Kevin. Much like s1′s dynamic while Sam’s sole priority was finding John while Dean was perfectly willing to keep hunting while they waited to find John.
The dynamic between Sam and Dean comes to a head, and Sam finally asserts himself and puts his foot down about the way Dean’s been treating him with regard to his choice to abandon hunting and not look for him in Purgatory. The spectre that takes over Dean is bent on revenge, brother against brother, over “unfinished business.” Betrayal, deception, manipulation, revenge.
That is one ANGRY pig.