#spn4.22

[incesthemes]

Holy Sonnet 14, John Donne // 4x21 When the Levee Breaks, 4x22 Lucifer Rising

[spnmonster]

Ruby: It wasn't the blood. It was you... and your choices. I just gave you the options, and you chose the right path every time. You didn't need the feather to fly, you had it in you the whole time, Dumbo! I know it's hard to see it now... but this is a miracle. So long coming. Everything Azazel did, and Lilith did. Just to get you here. And you were the only one who could do it.

Sam: Why? W-why me?

Ruby: Because... because it had to be you, Sammy. It always had to be you. You saved us. You set him free. And he's gonna be grateful. He's gonna repay you in ways that you can't even imagine. [4.22]

There are a couple of things that strike me about this conversation. One is how ambitious and full of herself Ruby is. She has every right to be proud given the context. She had great ambition, took a huge risk, and achieved her goals. She was awesome. Now, I’ve heard fans say that she loved Sam, but consider that she had not interest in what Sam wanted for himself. She knew his motives were to save people with his powers and destroy Lilith to stop the apocalypse. What she manipulated him into achieved the opposite. She didn’t love human Sam.

What she loved was Sam’s potential. She loved what Sam could do for her, for her kind, and her leader. When she talks about Lucifer repaying Sam, I can’t help but think that she imagined Sam as the boy king and her ruling at his side. She had no idea that Lucifer had no love of demons and would reward Sam by taking him as his vessel.

Lucifer: I've been waiting for you... for a long, long time. Come on, Sam. You have to admit -- you can feel it, right?... The exhilaration. And you know why that is? Because we're two halves made whole. M.F.E.O. Literally.

Could crueler words be spoken to Sam? He only wanted to use that stain on his blood to do good. Instead, through poor judgment he released this monster, and the monster is saying they are destined to be one – two halves of a whole. Sam never really had a choice because he is the same kind of evil.

Lucifer: I'm inside your grapefruit, Sam. You can't lie to me. I see it all -- how odd you always felt, how... out of place in that... family of yours. And why shouldn't you have? They were foster care -- at best. I'm your real family…. All those times you ran away, you weren't running from them. You were running towards me. This doesn't have to be a bad thing, you know. I let Dean live, didn't I? I want him to live. I'll bring your folks back, too. I want you to be happy, Sam. [5.22]

Again, I’ve heard fans say that Lucifer loved Sam because he offered sympathy and understanding, but Lucifer is the deceiver. He quite famously speaks with a forked tongue. So, he tries to make Sam’s sense of isolation and being a “freak” as a kid as kinship. It wasn’t the way he raised that made him feel that way. It was because Lucifer is his real family. He is trying to manipulate Sam just as Ruby did because he knows he hasn’t won yet. He knows how strong Sam is, and he wants him to give up and give in at the very least, and even more he wants him on his side.

Both Lucifer and Ruby understood how powerful Sam was, and they thought that power could be turned their way – for evil. The underestimated his desire to do good and his strength to resist their corrupting influence. If they “loved” him, it was as a tool that would help them achieve their goals, not as an independent person with desires of his own.