Remember when we got exposition that Dean’s sublimation of his true feelings, hiding his true self and his coping mechanisms was totally not working anymore? (13x05)
Followed in the very same episode by Billie showing us all the ways in which he could die?
Then we had a whole season’s worth more of showing us that Dean sublimates, hides himself.
Now this season is focused on what do you want? Coming out of Michael/Dean’s own mouth as well. It could not be more emphatically about Dean.
And now we have a callback to this again with Billie telling Dean there’s only ONE way to end happy. With Michael as the embodiment of all Dean’s hang ups, his sublimation, now laughably locked up by Dean, in the closet, on top of all the rest.
Yeah. I honestly don’t know what the point of this whole thing is if it’s not that the only good ending for Dean is one where he let’s go of the sublimation and is true to himself.
Showing us who Dean really is and what he really wants over the course of this season. Showing us over over and over that everything Michael said this episode is garbage, that he does love Cas and doesn’t just feel indebted to him, that he does love Jack and doesn’t feel like he’s a burden, that he doesn’t fear Sam abandoning him now but actually wants Sam to be emancipated and have what he wants too. That he is a hugger, a big softie, he loves Disney movies and soap operas and all the rest of the stuff he’s sublimated but it’s been obvious to anyone with eyes that he really likes he just pretends he doesn’t.
What’s the point of all this if the Michael!Dean story doesn’t expose all this to the max, even if it’s subtextually cos well it’s not the end yet, but especially now there’s apparently only one way this ends well for him. While alluding already to all the sublimation as bad stuff from before.
So much good stuff, where to start?! Longer / specific meta’s to a topic are linked and underlined. Okay, let’s dive in :)
- Sam’s beard. This was too good I had to do a quick visual meta on it right after I watched it. Dean really loves scruff on men, has flirted with guys with scruff, literally told Cas he liked his peach fuzz, but on Sam? HELL NO thats my brother! Brilliant, funny, sibling jibing, cute and bi!Dean stuff Bobo, kudos.
- Dean’s repressing his memories and pretending he doesn’t remember just like Hell, a callback to season 4. While he’s got a different Supernatural scar (Michael wound v Cas’ handprint which is another Supernatural forced bond v chosen bond with Cas theme just as Amara was) and all the Dean / Michael parallels going on since season 4/5 pointed it out and Dean in the end bravely went against his duty and destiny to be true to himself instead of the Michael mirror he was supposed to be while now he’s being told/asked again “are you like Michael or are you your own person?” Next up: PROVE IT. Excellent.
- The perfunctory Jack hug v the Cas eye love making wow, I mean I speculated that we wouldn’t get a hug because thematically it made sense not to with the holding back and empty space theme between them so having a Jack hug but not a Cas one was so jarring and supposed to be. It was done so well to show how much deeper the feelings are between Dean and Cas without a hug. Wowzers. Dean is looking at Cas then Jack launches in to hug him which he accepts but then just continues to just keep staring at Cas. Those two can convey more with their eyes than most can do with their whole bodies, it was so intimate and so much while at the same time showing the whole empty space holding back thing we yelled about all of last year after the mirror opposite of Cas being restored to Dean, on top of the romantic music when the scene starts but crescendos like crazy as soon as Cas enters and ends when Dean walks out. Pfffft.
Kaia, Cas and Jack mirrors, Dean’s metaphorical “am I like Michael?” arc and all the rest under the cut.
- Kaia! My anon from last week was right kudos! I’ll admit to having been totally wrong about that link with the scar, this is cool! The symbolism of Michael, epitome of the metaphor of toxic masculinity and Dean’s hang ups being terrified of little queer girl Kaia is just... wowzers. So much symbolism there, meanwhile Dean is literally stuck in the middle being harmed both physically and emotionally by this tug of war. All we need is for Kaia to become textually good, be emancipated, to help Dean defeat Michael (come on, the symbolism of the two of them doing it together? With help from Dean’s family Cas, Sam and even maybe Jack?!) and we’re good to go on a Dean Sublimation Winchester to Dean Emancipation Winchester textual storyline.
*grabby hands*
- Dean’s comment of “I didn’t mean to be a dick” while Jack’s all “everything is my responsibility” which is Dean’s MO makes me FEEL THINGS.
- Dean is throwing himself into the case to avoid his feelings and left Cas behind with ease. IMO, totally metaphorical as well as useful for the plot. Leaving his feelings and things that make him emotional behind? Better leave Cas there then, can’t have Cas and all the feelings that go with him next to him just being Cas when he’s precisely trying to bury his feelings, running away from them. Sam then acknowledging that this is “kinda your thing” is great. Yes Sam.
- Note the different music between Cas and Dean and Sam and Dean’s “moments” >...>
- Jody loving Sams beard lol, I just... love this. Whatever meta wise, it’s gold :p
- SAM AND SERIAL KILLERS!!! Just before we get Dean and horror movies! Showing their different interests! Yasssssss :D :D :D :D :D THIS IS MY ENDING THE TOXIC CODEPENDENCY LETTING THEM BE THEIR OWN PEOPLE JAM!
- Jack was going to leave and now isn’t because he wants to help someone, he is truly a Winchester.
- IT’S MARKED GROSS STUFF. All the headcanons of Dean and Cas doing domestic shit around the bunker. Throw in Sam on occasion too where Sam and Cas both eye roll at Dean’s childish antics with indulgent smiles and you got me one happy headcanoning fangirl. Thanks Bobo :)
- One of my dads! *internal screaming*
- “My mum probably hates me cos I ran away” Sam mirror?! Jack mirror obviously, but hey everyone’s a TFW mirror. Everyone’s a mirror of someone who’s a mirror of someone these days. It’s hard to keep up.
- Dean’s barrelling ahead but Sam has actually done intel, he is the rightful leader here. Dean is an emotional liability. This is gonna rear it’s head.
- Ok but is the necklace clearly not cursed...
- “First love strikes quick and to lose it like that” - I mean!!
A. Great that the GA get the textualisation that it was romantic that we’ve known since the ep aired, but great that it’s clearly canon now not just subtext. Though showing that clearly the subtext they did use (which was ALL DeanCas parallels) was supposed to show a romance story there >....>
B. Sam totally gets losing your first love to a Supernatural being and being set on revenge, throwing yourself into hunting to mask the pain. Jess rearing her head so late in the game is heartbreaking.
C. Insert matching gifs of Kaias death and Cas’s death too (which we paralleled to Sam x Jess and John x Mary at the time). Pffft. Then straight on to taking about Dean. More pffffft.
- Kaia was trying to stab Claire when they first met. Ok we get you want to write Destiel but openly queer Bobo, I love it, keep going.
- Jack losing someone and blaming himself while Cas looks like he is too. Jack is lamenting his powers... really to be a good Cas mirror he needs to find the solution here thanks to his mind and his human, powerless side to show this is just as powerful as having ‘powers’.- Oh look! He does ;) That’s not significant at all. Side eyes.- Cas is so proud :p
- Dean definitely seemed to have a Michael callback moment there. Excellent, I’ll be keeping a tabs in case it continues as per my spec that he will display Michael-esque behaviour over the season for plot and metaphorical reasons.
- Dean “I’m gonna do whatever it takes to defeat Michael” and going Michael on Kaia is an exact mirror of Nick murdering the neighbour in a fit of rage over “I’m gonna so whatever it takes to get revenge for my family”.
- Kaia / Bobo points it out that he’s like Michael okay lol hammer to the face but good that makes it simple :p
- Scared - “you always have been”. Flashback to Dean going nuts at Kaia and calling it what it is. Fear. No brainwashing, just Dean. As I said at the time >...> Of course it was all Dean and this is him too, it’s about how scared he is to be alone, to lose the people he loves, to feel unloved, unwanted, unuseful and all his hangups. This whole thing has been a giant neon sign pointing at Dean’s inner demons since day 1 and Bobo is clarifying for us just as Dabb clarified the Jack-Cas stuff earlier because of course it only makes sense to their character arc if they’re making their own decisions.
- God I love them.
- I’m already expecting stans to be mad that Kaia saved the 3 best hunters. *rolls eyes and moves* on ITS METAPHORICALLY SYMBOLIC and IMPORTANT TO THE PLOT.
- Jody feels like a John callback here about raising hunters and feeling like you’ve already lost before youve started whilst at the same time clearly is Bobo lamenting the loss of Wayward Sisters. Man... clutches heart strings.
- Cas “you made me so proud”. He’s so sweet and kind and argh. Proving that Jack is both hunter and angel. “Let’s go on a hunting trip” and Cas making soup?! End me! where’s the fan art?!!!!!
- Oh dear. Jack... Chekhov’s bloody cough.
- Dean actually opened up within one episode?! Wow. Character growth! He admits he was repressing and it was stupid. He admits he does remember some stuff as a clear mirror opposite to how long it took him to open up in season 4. He felt like he was drowning. Wow the depression metaphor. Now he feels responsible again. Sigh... a whole season of Dean pain. Well, we were prepared, let’s just tighten that seat belt.
This episode we see our Cas stand-in (Jack) team up with Dean and ask him to explain what love is, with Dean explaining that he very much does know the difference between healthy romantic love and toxic romantic love (exposed this episode with the zombie boyfriend “don’t leave me, it’s better you be dead and stuck with me than leave to live your life” storyline which I’m sure has no correlation to Dean and Cas coming up where they may be separated but let each other go, I’m side eyeing you 14x08). With Yockey emphasising that the lesson he himself exposed last season of sibling toxic love (the witch sisters) has also been learned as Dean and Sam exhibit perfectly healthy, open, communicative sibling love.
And I mean... mirrors...if we get any more mirrors Dabb’s going to have to open up a funhouse on set.
- So the episode opens with a Cas visual reminder with Harper wearing a beige coat before she changes after that job of “remember Cas in this episode” is done into her *warning sign* red clothing. Beige trenchcoats in Vancouver are clearly in limited supply after SPN has decided to dress everyone in one for the Cas effect. Get yours now.
- “Mary and Bobby’s" well, that didn’t take long to be an established thing.
- To Jack nothing tastes right without his powers whereas to Cas nothing tastes right with his powers >....>
My theory as a firm endgame human!cas meta writer with the later addition that Jack is a mirror exposition of each of TFW’s arcs that Jack gets his power back because he wants and chooses it as a part of his identity and Cas decides to be human in opposition because of his own choices and identity feels like it’s being fed here. Excellent.
- Sam smiling at the fidget spinner gives me feels of a positive goof nature
- Jack feels guilty for not killing Michael while Dean feels guilty for enabling Michael and I have feels about them understanding each others’ guilt and not pushing each other to get over it but just being supportive.
- Sam and Dean COMMUNICATING! MARK THE CALENDAR! Dean knows Sam won’t be particularly happy about him taking Jack hunting but he doesn’t hide it, he calls Sam and lets him know. Sam in turn doesn’t forbid it but shows he is not happy with it. COMMUNICATION. Taking into account each others’ judgement but not stifling each other. I’m living. This is what I was saying about the toxic sibling relationship v healthy sibling relationship in my opener. Steve clearly has big feels about this just as we do and wow he’s done an amazing job at firstly highlighting it with mirrors and metaphors then slamming it home with text... side eyes all the current metaphors and mirrors being highlighted for *other themes*.
More under the cut...
- Lol @ the barn behind Dean in the diner while Jack fills in the Cas visual gap.
- Wait did they even explain where was Cas is?! Nope. Yockey didn’t even bother cos he knows how stupid anything will sound lmao. *Cas is *throws dart** is about right here lbr.
- Chuck Berry as Dean and Jack’s pseudos. I love it.
- DEAN TURNING THE COCK AWAY WHILE TALKING ABOUT SEX I CANNOT. WHERE ARE THE GIFSETS?! I NEED GIFSETS! I WILL REBLOG ALL THE GIFSETS! it literally goes from talking about courting, dating and specifically sex and dean gets awkward and turns away the cock. I MEAN. This ain’t even SUBTLE.
- Are we supposed to see the two women they interview as a couple, I’m not sure.
- Charlie’s story is A. sad AF B. Political AF. C. Super thematic to the show. She worked at Richard Enterprises as a nice callback to show Yockey knows his canon on OG Charlie, then her story is full of fanfic tropes an ultimately death. Now, I hate kill your gays as much as anyone but I don’t think this is what Steve’s doing here, he literally can’t have her gf alive here. Now could Charlie go off to find her in this world? That would be brilliant.
- Did dean just call sam Thelma lol
- So Jack says he has no understanding of romance despite seeing Dean and Cas doing “googly eyes” each other to death and saying he knows this means someone loves you.
x
So Jack is the one who doesn’t know as the Destiel romance GA stand in where they figure it out but so does he so they don’t feel stupid as there’s someone on screen who’s like oooooooh I see now! So Sam can have the role of “I knew all along I just didn’t want to force you out of your comfort zone or get involved in things that don’t concern me” just as he did with Mary/Bobby last episode and which explains all his “strictly into Dick” “maybe you’re overcompensating” “because it’s Cas” lines from previously. Brilliant. Please continue.
- “Old man” good cop bad cop with sass. Jack, I love you.
- Jack doing all the OG Hunter tricks I love it. Again Yockey telling us he knows canon and knows what he’s fucking doing. Good lad.
- Sam: “people need people, we’re social animals”. Yockey and Dabb laying down what BS it is that Sam and Dean want to be alone just the two of them nearly every episode now is just the best. Sam wants people around him, now imo he’s not necessarily telling Charlie she should stay a hunter, just that it would be a real shame for her to ostracise herself on top of a mountain with wifi all alone. He gets that, he gets the escapism after all the trauma but he wants to help her and thinks she would be better off surrounded by others, my family and friends and he’s offering this to her and well, he knows this is what helps from his own experience. He’s living this change and seeing the benefits for himself. Just. So much yes.
- I also love that Charlie’s personality is part similar to ours but also part totally different because she’s not the same. Good, thank you Yockey. She’s not a replacement for our Charlie. No matter how hard Bucklemming may try and think they “fixed” her original death. She ain’t our Charlie and they haven’t fixed it. We are grateful to have some semblance of her but you are not forgiven for your complete lack of credibility, writing skills and total problematic behaviour regarding both her and all the other things you’ve done just by giving us an AU version of Charlie.
- So Harper is evil, quelle surprise. She exposes a codependent and unhealthily toxic relationship where she preferred to kill her boyfriend and tie him to her, having him literally kill and eat others rather than just let him go and live his life. So, I will write a separate post about this because I think it is the theme of the episode but this heavily reminds me of Yockey’s witch sisters being a dark Sam and Dean mirror of toxic sibling love last seasons, emphasising their choice to be toxic or healthy, with them now exhibiting all the healthy and rejecting the toxic behaviours.
So who is Harper and her boyfriend a dark romantic love mirror of now then with them potentially soon to choose a healthy route instead in direct opposition and one of them letting the other go, hmmmm I wonder...
x Just getting this gif out again cos well I’m sorry but Cas wasn’t even in this episode or last or last last yet he’s all over them with not just human!Cas stuff here but also all the Destiel like wow... it’s impressive tbh.
- Meanwhile Dean is dishing out healthy relationship advice. Again this feels relevant to Cas’ recent admittal to Nick that he had to “eat” someone to live in a way ie possess Jimmy for his body. This feels even more like a metaphor for his giving up his grace and exposing Cas again as not this but having his own body now created by Chuck just as everyone else does. Just in case people want to continue to use this argument against him and Destiel with the necrophilia rubbish which is already totally disproved but again rears its head in a “clearly this is not the same as that” way with actual dark mirror necrophiliac toxic love going on.
- Okay so we have more blatant overt textualised metaphors with the word “metaphor” in the text with Charlie v the big fly. They really are hammering home the concept of “pay attention to metaphors and mirrors people” this season. Wowzers.
- Next week’s promo also gives us another mirror with Jack driving the impala and telling Dean “it’s like I’m you!” “no it isn’t”. Honestly, is this a memo that they have to do this every episode because I approve. Knock that memo home.
- I would also like to point out as @margarittet reminded me, the queer story in this episode (Charlie x her girlfriend) is beautiful and positive though tragic due to outside circumstances and the heterosexual story is toxic and gross with codependency, necrophilia and murder by Harper’s own choice. This isn’t to say it’s anti hetero it’s just making a point that it doesn’t matter who you love it’s what you do with it and who you are that counts.
I was going to write this under someone else’s post then realised they may not like it so here it is.
Season 7 Cas is not Crazy. He’s repressing who he is, his memories and feelings in order to not deal. Because it’s too much.
I’ve talked about this before but in a very short TL;DR version:
Cas had his mind entirely in season 7, he was just trying to evade his responsibilities and emotions by deluding himself and others that he wasn’t that Cas who made all those mistakes, he couldn’t face what he’d done, the enormity if it all when it came rushing back into his memory in one go in 7x17, so he pretended and repressed it, it couldn’t be him, that’s not him now so he doesn’t have to deal.
It’s a complete evasion of accepting his responsibility for the awful events that happened, the deaths he caused and all the pain because it’s just too much. It’s all pretense though, he does remember, he’s just repressing the hell out of it.
As shown by the way he flips right back to serious mode when Dean asks him to with no external intervention and how he later talks about purgatory as his penance because he finally put aside the pretense and faced his past.
My favourite part is this moment, right before they go to purgatory. Which sets up everything he does in purgatory perfectly.
It’s a beautiful arc of:
7x17-22 evading his feelings and memories for self preservation
7x22-23 acknowledging them just enough to be of help but still trying to hold onto this “not me” delusion so he doesn’t have to face it
season 8 putting all that behind him and nutting up, facing his responsibilities and emotions to save Dean and then accepting them as a penance.
Which then all leads into his later season arcs of facing his past, accepting his errors and accepting that he deserves forgiveness now, culminating in his death and resurrection, reborn anew.
“The past, where you came from, that's important, but it is not as important as the future and where you’re going” - Castiel Winchester.
My episode review / meta for 14x02 covering the main points:
Michael / Dean meta and speculation as to what this means next.
Cas’ arc exposition, learning to accept and love himself for who he is.
Nick as the Dean mirror to come, thanks to new Archangel-vessel link canon.
Michael / Dean
The episode opener reminds us that Michael is sadistic and plays a long game “I could have done this quick but I wanted to enjoy it”.
This really sets us up well for the fact that whatever the reason, Michael has made the choice to “leave” Dean (I say this loosely as we don’t know what the new canon is they’re playing with re: Archangel vessels link to the Archangel after they’ve left).
We’ve also had the word “bait” twice in two episodes, right before Dean is suddenly and with no explanation freed, right back into his family.
More side eyes.
It definitely feels like a long game choice, he’s going to enjoy whatever it is that he’s done to Dean, whether it’s literally just “the hunted becoming the hunter” and he’s now watching Dean keenly or is actually inside him hiding somehow or something else entirely, who knows, but it’s 100% going to rear it’s head later.
I’m also 100% sure Michael is the one who punched the mirror and I kinda love that symbolism that he’s SO ABSOLUTELY in control and Dean can’t just expel him before he magically disappears so... serious side eyes.
In general Michael is just continuing along the theme we already know, he’s a genocidal self aggrandising asshole who here is also reminiscent of the nazis with his experiments. They’re keen to hammer home the “bad guy” symbology.
Michael may be temporarily/semi “out” of Dean but he is in no way gone.
The rest under the cut
Monsters v Humans and the grey area
Jack to Lucifer: you’re not my father, youre a monster.
Nick about the murderer of his family: He’s not a man, he’s a monster.
More excellent reminders that monsters does not equal supernatural creature and the other way around. It’s about your choices not who you are.
Cas
This episode showcases Cas’ continued mental health improvements since his death/resurrection metaphor allowed him to address and move past his guilt/self worth issues that have plagued him since season 7. We have exposition that he feels happier, more content in himself and doesn't equate his powers to himself. Whilst of course this raises huge human!cas endgame feels it doesn’t necessarily tell us this is the only way, more that he is realising that he is valid and should love himself for who he is, not how useful he is as a tool. The Jack mirror here has worked wonders and this scene really hammers it home after last episode’s ramp up to it.
Cas also is the exposition here to “people are not magically born superheroes, heroes at all, powerful, good, leaders etc they have to work at it and choose it because they’re good people”. Good people sometimes fail and that’s okay. Patience, persistence and a good moral compass are what get you through.
*I’m clapping whilst tearing up and whooping all at the same time*
Meanwhile...
We then not only address Cas’ mental well being but also some of the past canon that *some people* still think is a point of interest but everyone else has had figured since at least season 10.
Jimmy is dead and gone, Cas wells up with emotion when talking about him and his biggest regret in millennia of existence is what happened to Jimmy and his family. He could not help his nature as an Angel of needing a vessel and he was also just following orders at this point lets remember, he wasn’t making his own choices.
But once he was making his own decisions and realised what he had caused by collateral damage he did what he could to help them. He actively looked for Claire, he tried so hard to save Claire and Amelia, albeit he was unable to succeed with Amelia, he continues to try to help Claire.
Nick’s harsh words are not, as the Cas haters would like to believe telling us that this is fact. Of course it’s not, the show doesn’t villainise it’s lead protagonists for funsies, calling them the same as Lucifer, the biggest villain to ever villain on the show who made clear just 2 episodes previously that he didn’t give a shit about anyone else whilst this scene shows us Cas literally tearing up over what happened to Jimmy... the mere concept this is supposed to be taken at face value us... *insert laugh crying emoji*, lbr that’s just so completely illogical and so stupid I won’t even bother addressing it, I’ll just talk about what the point of it is.
It’s a set up for us to reel back and think “ouch!, what? no!” and for Cas himself to address, which he does well here, without creating excuses but by showing real regret and caring over the matter whilst we know he is doing his best to fix the mistake through the episodes we’ve seen him dealing with Claire previously.
New Archangel - vessel link canon
Nick is a mirror and useful to the Michael!Dean plot, I am happy about that, but I’m only moderately interested in this plot device Archangel-vessel link thing because it’s setting up for later in the season boring rehashing of more Michael/Lucifer plot line and tbh I’m extremely over it and want to move on with my life and wish the show would move on already.
I’ve seen interpretations on my dash that Nick was the monster who killed his family and whilst I get that, imo that’s not where they’re going with this. It’s more that this is a next step up from the first clicking fingers when emotionally compromised. Nick lost control due to his extreme emotions and the Lucifer link, whatever it is, meant he channeled Lucifer’s anger and ended up killing his neighbour. This makes far more sense in terms of how it will later be a useful mirror for Dean who will at times lose control and ‘go Michael’ more and more over the season I imagine. I just don’t really know what the point of this is if not tbh!
We know from interview spoilers that Dean is “semi-possessed”, not truly free, will have repercussions etc and this Nick-Lucifer mirrored link where he channels Michael’s emotions is too obvious not to be relevant imo. It also links perfectly to all the Dean meta since forever about his John issues, with Michael being the epitome of a John mirror and Dean having moments of acting like him despite this not being who he truly is and finally throwing it off at the end of the season, this could be used utterly brilliantly metaphorically and close off the Dean’s daddy issues theme that’s been an underlying running theme since 13x01 especially. I look forward to that aspect.
hi I don’t know if it’s just me, but does it feel like d/c’s relationship has been kind of stagnant for the past few seasons...? i just don’t sense much development but it could all be in my head. maybe it’s bc cas can’t be in every episode so it feels like he has a very set role
The TL;DR version is: WE, the audience, know they love each other romantically. THEY are written as thinking they can’t have each other (he doesn’t love me that way / I’m only needed not wanted / everything I touch turns bad / I’ve done nothing but screw up his life / I’m poison).
Cue audience frustration < That’s the point we are at now. But the story itself isn’t backing off, it’s building. It’s just currently in the stage of incoherent frustrated noises as we know they are in love with each other but they’re holding back.
Why?
Dean/Cas as romantic since mid season 11 has been growing at an alarmingly massive rate but it has grown as a love story core to the plot, not as a bunch of wink wink nudge nudge moments as it had been many times previously.
It’s not a JOKE anymore it’s CORE TO THE PLOT.
So yeah, we haven’t had so many moments like Thelma and Louise or lip licking or boner scenes but we’ve had Cas literally tell Dean he’s in love with him then telling the rest of the family that he loves them, surrounded by a bunch of peripheral characters prior to this in s12 doing their own rendition of singular v plural (like Magda’s mom “she did this to me, she did this to us” etc) then finally in season 13 this came back again with Jack’s reminder of this moment in the finale just as Dean is with Cas and saying yes to Michael to save the others and the world just as Cas originally helped him avoid. Of all the ironies amiright.
Because in between this we had the Empty literally telling Cas he knows who he loves and that there’s nothing for him there and Dean running around for 3 years yelling “what about CAS?!” at every opportunity.
It couldn’t be clearer that Dean’s mourning for Cas was different to Sam’s. That Dean’s grief is what caused Jack to reach through the veil and wake Cas up. Insert gif of “gay love pierces the veil and saves the day”. Cos I mean JEEZ. Plus this reminds us again of how Amara had to reach through Cas’ heart to get to Dean at the end of season 11 even though they were apparently “bound” but ahem no, she had to work through Cas to get to Dean because Dean’s chosen bond with Cas was way stronger than the forced bond with her. She couldn’t contact him until he was thinking about Cas and she hovered her hand over his heart to feel the link then she was able to speak to him. TWICE. Like… this is all canon and it doesn’t really come across as platonic you know? All this heart symbolism and it being clear that something here is deep and meaningful, meanwhile Dean is going through his personal arc of accepting who he really is and a huge amount of that is stuff like ahem, riding Larry, and a whole bunch of stuff over 13 years leading us to see him as bisexual and at the same time he happens to have deep and meaningful and different feelings towards one dude in particular who tells him he loves him then Dean goes and makes him a mixtape and is so friggin awkward like a teenager with a crush who at the same time is not sure what he can and can’t have, is going through a whole personal arc of self worth and acceptance where he’s flitting between letting himself have what he wants but then also holding back so he gives him the friggin mixtape but is also like “buddy” “pal” cough um, I mean, uh, here have this tape I made you and let me look after you here’s a beer though you don’t need one, do you need a back rub? I mean, uhh.… ok this is all a massive coincidence right? Pfffft.
Meanwhile it couldn’t be clearer that Cas thinks Dean is not in love with him, that he feels rejected romantically and this is the basis for all of their interactions in season 13. Dean being all “oh I was grieving and nearly died myself until you came back but then I immediately went “welcome home pal” and suppressed the CRAP out of all those feelings and then went on to tell you you were brought back cos we needed you back which is such horse shit everyone was screaming at their tv “NO THE ONLY PERSON WHO NEEDED HIM BACK WAS YOU DEAN AND YOU DONT NEED HIM, YOU WANT HIM! IT’S NOT THE SAME!”. The only reason Jack at that point needed Cas back was because Dean was being such a dick to him because of what he did to Cas. Like… ain’t no sub to that text. Again that’s all canon.
We then had Sam’s “we need you, I need you” to Gabriel which was clearly NOT ROMANTIC but emphasised both the fact that Cas thinks Dean’s “I need you” was not romantic and therefore feels rejected AND the plural/singular thing.
We have Tombstone where Dean’s been a mess for 5 episodes then Cas comes back and he’s BEAMING. But to Cas nothing has changed, he doesn’t know Dean was a mess, to him Dean’s just being Dean but we the audience see the huge change. This then builds all season up to Dean’s BS “we needed you back” no chickflick moments totally suppressing the truth comment to Cas so Cas has no idea of what really happened and how it all hinges on Dean’s feelings for him.
We have the Donatello thing where the reason Cas goes full on triggered and ends up doing what he does is because he hurt Dean. When he hurt Sam it was like oh bad times but whatever lets just tie him up and ask him questions.
Hurting Dean though?
x
Like… sure of course it’s all still subtext and if they really wanted to they could chicken out because noone has said “I love you” in a direct and open manner to the other without the other thinking it’s not really what they mean or rejecting the crap out of it because they don’t think they’re worthy and causing them to feel rejected but it would make no real narrative sense at this point other than as massive queerbaiting and storybaiting because they’ve built them now so far in the context of the plot as intrinsic to each other and to the plot itself as romantic now.
Like, what is the point of all this if not to lead here you know? You just wouldn’t bother making it romantic in the first place. You just wouldn’t bother building the plural v singular and need v want and perceived rejection over the course of 2.5 YEARS if not to go somewhere with it all when it all points to the same conclusion?
I think a big problem rn in the narrative and fandom is that both of them feels the other has in the past or is currently romantically rejecting them. Their feelings are stalled and suppressed which makes us watching it feel it is stalled / suppressed even though it’s built into the narrative more than ever.
WE, the audience, know they love each other romantically.
THEY think they can’t have each other so act accordingly awkward around each other instead of flirty / like they think it could happen so it comes across on screen like they’re not interested in each other even though at every opportunity around it we are being continuously told they are.
Cue audience frustration.
^ That’s the point we are at now ^
THEY think the other isn’t in love with them in return and that there’s nothing for them there (Cas) or that they don’t deserve that love (Dean) or a mix of the two plus a whole bunch of “he’s confused and doesn’t know what he wants we’re better off as friends anyway and everyone I touch / love ends up dead and if we ever did get to a point where our lives weren’t this apocalyptical mess and he still felt the same way maybe then when we’re on the beach sipping beers in matching Hawaiian shirts then I could entertain the thought of us together and offer to put lotion on his back and go from there but at this point it would just end badly and I don’t think I could lose him again after getting together it would just hurt even more and I can’t do that to either of us”.
Remember in season 9 when Cas was human and they were at a point of literally flirting so much Sam was like WTF
But then Cas had to become an Angel again to do his duty, to help Heaven, save Sam etc and Dean was like dude what why did you do that are you ok with that and Cas didn’t answer at all except to say he had to do it. Like, they literally built in that episode what would happen if they were actually allowed to do what they wanted for once, which was whatever the hell was coming after all this flirtation ^, it was a massive exposition of what Cas wanted instead of what he thought he needed to do to be useful. It was “hey look this is what Cas wants but he is stopping himself from having it but remember this and bear with until he gets to the point he can allow himself to have it”.
Which is again exactly what Dean’s Hawaiian shirt speech was in 13x23!
=>These are exposition of what they want right before forcing them to reject it in order to be useful to save others. Exposing their desires to make it even more heartbreaking when they reject it out of their selfless desire to help others.
BECAUSE THIS IS WHAT HEROES DO.
You can’t really build a hero without first showing what they want so it is even stronger when they suppress that in order to help others. I mean, you could but it would be pretty hollow, showing what they want and then not allowing them to have it until their happy ending is kind of how you build the tragic hero story, otherwise it’s kinda like meh what’s the alternative? Give the audience the alternative, what they want, then take it away from them due to their selfless desire to help others, that’s what makes a real hero story. Then give them their happy ending and the audience will have wanted it for so long for them they’ll love you for it.
Like - SPN fandom is mostly a bunch of people yelling “why can’t they just be happy?! Give Sam a dog! Let him have friends! Let Dean cook and have his Dean cave! Let Cas feel loved!” That’s because it’s been so well built this way to make us want this for them and them not having it for years.
Make the audience want something then hold it back - lesson 101 of building their engagement with the story.
TL;DR since mid season 11 they’ve given us so much Dean/Cas as romantic that the GA have started noticing, it’s a serious topic in interviews eg Dean and Sam’s reactions to Cas’ death and more and more people are seeing it as romantic (even the anti Destiel people are foaming at the mouth and yelling at TPTB because they can’t deny it in the text of the show anymore), whilst also building it that the characters themselves think it’s NOT romantic or that they just can’t have it and I think that’s where this perception that it isn’t comes from - the characters own perception that they can’t have it.
But the narrative is showing us it bloody well is romantic AF but the characters are suppressing it, so buckle up for when they realise they might be able to actually have it.
So I can see lots of people are upset about the lack of Cas mention, especially at the end of 13x17, centring on Dean not telling Cas that he is going into the rift. I then of course immediately watched the 13x18 preview and this is basically all about Cas dealing with the fact that Dean went off into the rift without telling him. Spectacularly. I mean...
So, I’ll explain why this lack of telling Cas what he’s doing in 13x17 doesn’t bother me yet, because I believe it fits the rest of the season’s storybuilding between Dean and Cas perfectly, namely the epically frustrating WHAT THE FUCK - ness of it all that is purposefully built this way to make the audience frustrated and annoyed with it, because they want us to want them to be honest and just TALK. USE YOUR WORDS is what they want us to be screaming at the TV and we are! I love it so much, but then, epic frustrating long burn love trope? It’s kinda my thing ;)
So, basically the frustrating end of 13x17 exactly leads into this preview for 13x18 (but if the pay off isn’t there by season end I will be pissed, so don’t worry I’m not being annoyingly positive for no reason I just do see a reason for this and why I believe they’re doing it).
So far this season we’ve had a massive lack of honesty and communication from Dean towards Cas, but really only specifically towards Cas, he’s been more and more honest about himself and his emotions about so much else, all the Disney references, treating Sam like a brother instead of his child, being sweet and childish in his Indiana Jones moment, letting so much of his previously repressed side out, meanwhile it’s been palpably irritating just how much Cas doesn’t know Dean’s grief is what brought him back, not his mission towards Jack. It’s been palpably irritating that Cas was being told by himself that there is nothing for him there, where the person “who you love” is, in that exact episode Dean’s grief brings him back to life. Dean is coming more and more out of his shell, except around Cas. Case in point just last episode talking about the Cartwright twins to Sam then clamming up immediately as soon as Cas questions him.
It’s been purposefully set up to tell us that there are things unsaid between them and it is leading to not just issues for them but overall for everyone.
Because they just won’t talk!
*frustrated noises!*
This specific lack of communication towards Cas has been building ever since 12x12. I mean, it’s literally been building since Cas said"I love you” so... there’s a clear reason why here. He’s terrified and not using his words, holding things back, hiding things, because there’s something to hide. There’s literally no other explanation for this and they’re making this clear.
I’ve said before this episode for a while that that this season seems to be building this lack of communication / not telling each other the full truth trope (just as other meta writers have been talking, specifically I believe @mittensmorgul, about the particular aspect of giving people only half the information / half truths a lot this season which leads to big problems), which perfectly links into the whole “you’re family and I care about you” but not going all the way to “I’m in love with you” thing that is specifically the problem here.
Basically by season end I’m expecting an “honesty blow out”. I’m expecting Cas to have it out with Dean, because he’s finally comfortable in his own self and thinks he deserves better overall thanks to getting out of his depression arc, meanwhile he’s finding Dean increasingly infuriating.
Meanwhile Dean himself is mirroring Cas from last year, trying to protect him but putting himself in danger. There is no way you can’t tell me he’s protecting Sam and Cas by going into the rift himself with Ketch, because Ketch doesn’t matter to him, when he knows full well that Sam would go with him if he didn’t have to take care of Gabriel and Cas would 1000% be coming with him if he knew anything about it, the guy isn’t daft, he didn’t tell Cas for a reason, because last time Cas went through the rift he died, and that’s not happening again, “not on my watch” as he said only last episode.
So yes, I’m expecting this to grow.
I’m expecting Cas to be exasperated while Dean is in the AU next episode, then I’m expecting them to have an awkward reunion and either then or more likely later on (say 13x19-22) finally some big blow up about all this. For Cas to give Dean what for about going to the rift and putting himself in danger, maybe we might even get Dean saying something along the lines of “well I didn’t want you to go, look what happened last time! You DIED!” and for this to finally come to a crux before whatever the big season finale thing happens.
Before this episode I felt this was leading this way, now even more so, it’s just all logically, narratively leading here... this Dean not communicating with Cas and trying to protect him from afar is just another piece of this puzzle that fits exactly.
It’s just more fuel for the fire. Ahem. I’m Sam, warming my hands on the pyre :p
But, hell, if it isn’t leading here then I will be royally pissed. But given it’s all pieces of the puzzle, a puzzle that so far is so good and building so frustratingly brilliantly that I can see everyone already so frustrated about it and we are only at episode 18...
I’m just waiting and rubbing my hands together in glee ;)
I'm really torn about Mary. I love that she's a strong, independent woman and I'm rooting for her romance with Bobby. But tbh, I don't feel like she really wants to be Sam and Dean's mother. To me, their relationship feels more like hunting allies or distant relatives than immediate family. So I'm trying to understand Mary more. You mentioned family responsibilities. How would Mary interpret that? Do you think she sees being emotionally or physically nurturing to her sons as a weakness?
Hi!
I love Mary thanks for asking :)
I’d recommend you scroll my Mary Fucking Winchester tag, I’m quite vocal about my POV of her, how she’s absolutely and clearly “not just a mom” and a wholly independent person in her own right.
Whilst it’s understandable that some people struggle with her apparent “not caring” about the boys I just… I can’t with this POV. It’s so friggin misogynistic (often it also comes from those who love John which just NO NO NOPEDY NO TAKE A SEAT).
Mary died a horrible death. She then lived in Heaven with an ideal perfect life with her two babies who she clearly LOVED. She was then unceremoniously resurrected into a world which from the first moments was horrific enough that she might believe it to be Hell (I’m reminded of Buffy so much with her storyline). One of her kids is kidnapped and tortured and the other is a hunter, something that was literally the last thing she wanted for them. Of course she struggles with the WORLD, with her whole life basically, Sam and Dean are just a part of that…
She then put herself second to them and tried to protect them by working with the MoL. Of course it didn’t work out but doing the wrong thing for the right reasons is literally a right of passage for Winchesters. We cannot have double standards here, Sam Dean and Cas have all done this kind of thing at some point - because they love each other. That was her motivation. To protect them.
Because she loves them.
Is she a cardboard cutout cookie baking apron wearing cutesy pie tucks them in to bed at night mom? No. But she WAS. We know that from Heaven and flashbacks and the pilot. That was Mary. But Mary now is tortured, she’s come into this harsh world and is just trying to do her best.
I don’t think she views being physically or emotionally nurturing to her boys as a weakness at all, I think she just is/was struggling with who they are, what her life is in general. It’s not a choice to be removed and frozen with them (she literally broke out of that in 12x22 right? She was giving all the hugs after that then got stuck in an alternate universe, not really her fault!), she was just struggling with life in general and Hell I know plenty of depressed, anxiety driven people who would say that’s exactly how we act - remove yourself physically and emotionally. I mean this is also a Winchester classic in itself too lets not forget.
So yeah I have huge respect for her storyline since she came back. I do think part of the problem in fandom with people disliking her is Sam Smith’s (by choice maybe as she’s tortured idk?) quite frozen acting but as I say perhaps this is a choice, it makes it hard to really gel with her emotions though, you have to really delve as I do understand on a top level she seems to not care sometimes but the thing is her words and actions show she cares IMMENSELY. If she was more emotive I think it would be clearer but the words, the actions, they all prove one thing, that she loves them and has struggled with herself and her life so much, she’s got so much going on and no, the boys are not the freaking centre of the universe no matter what J2 stans think. Whilst at the same time I re-emphasise that Mary’s actions have continually been to protect her boys. She worked with the MoL despite her best instincts and literally punched Lucifer in the face and got sucked into a different universe to protect them!
Lets give her a little slack!
I really look forward to her storyline as it’s so brilliant for her own right but it’s also so key as I keep saying for Sam, Dean and Cas’ arcs but especially Dean’s - to see her accepting who she really is, what her life is, what she wants and to go get it unapologetically. Hell, I’m even half expecting some kind of mentioning at some point that her whole life was a lie since the moment she met John and was forced to love him by a Cupid, she bloody well deserves her own life back and to be and do what she wants, finally! After so many years of duty, responsibility and being horrifically manipulated by others for their end.
It stuck out to me so much when she said to Ketch that all she’s ever had is her WILL and that just floored me because she doesn’t even know she didn’t have that, that she was manipulated into loving John, that her whole adult life was based on a lie, it’s just so horrifically TRAGIC.
So her getting a happy ending and finally who she wants to be?! YES!
Which is all just such a huge exposition and mirror for our boys.
Which leads me to my satisfied face as her story is just continuing further and further down the route I expected and wanted to clearly lead to and give us this happy ending for THEM.
