has anything been said about the names of the episodes appearing in the dialogue in the latest episodes? in 13.14 cas said "a most holy man" (13.15) and i'm pretty sure someone said "good intentions" too, in 13.15 the italian guy said "devil's bargain" (13.13). i like to think there's something behind this but maybe is just a coincidence?
I remember screaming in a liveblogging comment about the Devil’s Bargain reference...
http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/171676250310/he-called-their-deal-a-devils-bargain-nice
huh... I guess I was only screaming on the inside? :P
Cas referencing the Most Holy Man was literally the ingredient from the spell, and he was just listing it off, while all of us who already knew the title for 13.15 got to speculate that this would have something to do with the next episode, so I’m less likely to think of it as some sort of subtle hint to something, but more a blatant textual reference.
But the Most Holy Man describing Sam and Dean’s dealings with some truly awful people in order to get what they needed for their spell, which would’ve allowed for those truly awful people to also benefit by Sam and Dean’s need... that was the Devil’s Bargain. Putting themselves in the employ of gangsters and thieves who would steal a beloved relic from people who put their entire faith in it for purely selfish reasons, Father Camilleri was warning them that while their goal may have been true that there had to be a better way, essentially.
Then again, Father Camilleri was ready to simply give up and go home when their leads on finding the skull ran out. He was prepared to just... give up. Which obviously was not an acceptable outcome, you know? But his story (i.e. speaking honestly about his mission) prompted Sam (and eventually Dean) to agree to find another way.
Just by asking, Sam discovered that the Father had memorized the number on the slip of paper that had been stolen from him. Even with the number in his head, the Father STILL didn’t know he had the clue that would lead them right to the skull, because he didn’t know how to interpret the information himself. But Sam DID. They each had been ready to give up, UNTIL THEY TALKED TO EACH OTHER!
Imagine! Communication was key!
But there was also an element of faith, that everything would work out even when they were going up against a rather fraught situation in which things went completely sideways, the full extent of the danger of their predicament was revealed and the true mastermind behind the entire scheme was both revealed and then backstabbed within minutes... and then a battle ensued in which a lot of those aforementioned awful people ended up dead (and in which Sam and Dean STILL had to do some terrible things involving shooting at other humans who ended up dead), and Sam SAVING The Most Holy Man by literally murdering someone who’d tried to kill him... sometimes the “morality” of an action isn’t just “Lying is a sin” and therefore ALL lying is a sin, always and in all circumstances.
Because if that was the case, how are we supposed to read this tangle of moral quandaries? In the shootout scene at the end of the episode, Father Camilleri is outside praying while the shooting starts. He then goes inside, unarmed, to do whatever he can to help. He sees Margaret Astor’s henchman about to shoot Dean in the back and wrestles the gun so that the bullet goes over Dean’s head-- both alerting Dean to the danger and the fact he was nearly shot in the back (and would’ve been without the Father’s intervention).
During the wrestling match, the Henchman (I forget his name) gets the upper hand and fires at the Father’s abdomen and the Father falls to the ground. Nobody knows his current status, only that he’s down. Henchman then aims his gun at Sam when Sam yells NO! Sam then shoots Henchman before Henchman can shoot him, and the fight’s over.
So... was any of that “objectively morally wrong?” I mean, Henchman dude had already shot Astor in cold blood, kicking off the whole shootout. But Astor had been the one to manipulate everyone into this position to start with, right? Or was it Scarpatti for orchestrating the original theft of the skull from the convent (which led to an innocent nun being knocked out)? Well, they all ended up dead anyway... but was killing THEM morally just? In the name of the greater good? Or just in the name of not being killed themselves, or in the name of Sam and Dean protecting each other?
I mean, the morality here is not simple black and white...
Which brings me back to something I’ve been meaning to say since 13.14. Remember at the beginning of the season, when Jack was grappling with morality himself, and repeatedly reduced everything to whether it was “good or bad?” He struggled with anything that didn’t clearly fit into one box or the other. The scene in 13.02 where he read the bible:
JACK: This book, it mentions my father. Not Castiel, but Lucifer. DEAN: Oh, yeah. Yeah, he’s—he’s big in the Bible. Lotta screen time.JACK: And you… knew him?SAM: Well, he’s not really an easy guy to know. He’s, um, he’s kind of rough around the edges.DEAN: He’s Satan.JACK: And that’s… that’s bad.DEAN: Damn straight. See… he turned on his father, God.JACK: God, he’s in here, too. Is he famous or something?SAM: Yeah. Um, God basically… created everything.DEAN: Yeah, and then he skipped out, leaving guys like us to clean up his messes like Lucifer.JACK: So, God’s like my grandfather. He’s family, and that’s… That’s good.DEAN: Sometimes.
It took Jack a while to get “sometimes.”
Yes... this long diversion actually has a point... :P
Black and White doesn’t work as a functional approach to morality, and sometimes it’s impossible to know if you’re doing a “good thing” in the moment, because we don’t always have all the information we need to judge that. But as long as good people with good intentions do their best and don’t compromise on what’s important to them, don’t give up on love and hope, then sometimes they can make the world better.
The whole point is they DON’T have easy answers for everything, and they can’t possibly know if they’re really doing the right thing, and sometimes the “right thing” looks awfully like the “wrong thing,” but regardless it might be the necessary thing.
Blah... I think the reference to Devil’s Bargain here was a good reminder of this.
