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theboykingsmichaelsword · 3 days ago

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the summoning scene in s3e16 no rest for the wicked is ruby teaching a masterclass in manipulating sam before being interrupted by the one person who can foil her

she arrives and first plays unimpressed because that's been her safe bet with sam since they met

but when sam talks abt being ready to kill lilith and needing her knife to do it she eases up

in doing so, ruby keeps the fact that she's softly leading the conversation where she wants it to go carefully obscured by sam's urgency/need to believe that they can still do it they can still save dean even this close to the deadline

but then sam pushes for the knife again and she tells him no

she dangles salvation in front of his nose before taking it away because 1) she's still a demon and sam expects her to be difficult

2) it is a half-cocked plan at best

3) giving sam the knife now wouldn't endear her to him in the long-run. they only need the knife itself not ruby and if that plan does somehow succeed it'd only prove that he doesn't need anyone besides dean as his partner and closest confidante

4) most important of them all, it's neither the time for lilith to die because the first seal hasn't broken nor would the knife-kill do anything for their plan to corrupt sam and make him a suitable vessel for lucifer

so we get sam asking her what they're supposed to do since his plan isn't feasible. he asks! he's back to seeking her guidance despite the fact that this conversation began with him demanding

ruby goes back to validating sam's belief that dean can be saved because she needs to prime him for the next big manipulation

sam, understandably, rejects that validation because in an earlier episode dean told sam ruby admitted to not knowing how to save him from the deal

he gets angry and raises his voice because how dare this demon attempt to convince him that his brother--a fundament of his world, the person he knows has always loved and protected him, fathermotherbrotherpartner all at once--lied to him about something he knows sam cares deeply about (the threat of dean's damnation)

and ruby backs off because she hasn't isolated sam from dean here yet hasn't wormed deep enough to have him truly questioning his place in dean's life and regard (i.e. her s4 arc)

crucially, she tells sam "you're not the one i've been lying to." she manufactures a sense of intimacy between them by making sam think he gets something from her no one else does (her honesty) and bubbles the two of them off from the rest of the world

sam again is confused because then where is this conversation going how can they get dean out of paying up for the deal and sam again asks(!!) for her guidance to which ruby, in her eternal wisdom and PhD in sam studies tells him the one thing that's even sweeter than dean being saved

ruby can't save him...

sam saving dean himself, with abilities only he has, no third party, no need to involve anyone else no need for ruby no need for the knife

(you'd think this would counter ruby's attempt to cleave herself to him by encouraging sam to think he doesn't need her but the idea of not needing her still comes from her so no it doesn't counter at all; she's still giving him something he never thought he could have--power. over demons, over the helpless version of himself azazel corrupted with his blood and made vulnerable with his schemes, as well as over dean and dean's fate.)

there's a delightful micro-expression jared does here where his mouth twitches and his eyes narrow (a screenshot can't do it justice) but which simultaneously does the job of communicating sam baffled by ruby's audacity and yet also maybe just a ~tiny~ bit considering

but of course we inevitably circle back around to sam not believing her, shaking his head, rejecting her advice for the third time bc ruby is a demon is a demon IS A DEMON and if something sounds too good to be true it usually is especially if it comes from a demon's tongue (if i could edit, i'd be downloading this whole conversation and adding klaxon sounds and red lighting at this part in the scene because! sam! this sounds an awful lot like a deal doesn't it!)

important to note here that sam calls it "crap" and then scoffs, both disbelieving and unimpressed at abilities he viewed as ultimately worthless (more harm than good considering all he had were painful, demoralizing visions he mostly couldn't change)

which is why ruby--teaching a masterclass as earlier established--comforts him by saying he could've had more been more

quick sidebar reminder, ava back in s2 was the special kid most like sam in that they both had premonitions!! and ava was eventually able to summon/control demons! ava who was also corrupted by that power (or more likely, already corrupt herself and the power just drew it out) and killed innocent people with it!! the scene doesn't really give us anything to think sam might be remembering this in the moment, as the camera flicks really quickly between him and ruby, but you couldn't pay me to think he didn't remember ava later especially with his guilt about being fundamentally "unclean" because of the demonblood

anyway back to the scene, ruby tells sam that not only could he have done more with his powers, the version of himself he could've been would've been formidable as fuck

sam, for the 4th 5th 6th idek who's keeping track anymore, is disbelieving because again ruby's a demon and therefore can't be trusted--a thought that's so obvious on his face to ruby that she affirms it to further sell the image that 1) sam's still in control here and 2) ruby's "never lied to him"

(which, like, we could go into a whole thing here about how the best lie is the one closest to the truth and ruby knows that. she makes it her bread and butter and tells sam to his face that she's manipulating him but obscures the fact that everything is a manipulation not just the bits she verbally acknowledges are. lies by ommission are still lies after all)

but of course she immediately paints her manipulativeness as coming from a place of knowing sam as a person (manufacturing intimacy again!)

she knows exactly what to say to make her helpfulness believable to him--reluctantly given, cognizant of sam's flaws, and not overeager like she's taking advantage (even though to us she clearly is)

then she creates division between him and his brother, a division she implies isn't there between her and sam because ruby accepts him as he is and ruby would never begrudge sam his specialness

she preys on sam's doubts about how much dean can accept of him, on the possibility of his brother's reproach, uses the word "freak" here with damning weight potently different from how dean has called sam a freak before (always with lightness, teasing even if honest, the way he called sam a freak in s1e6 skin where dean also immediately said he was a freak too and assures sam of his acceptance and companionship)

and the dean who, even after finding out about sam's visions and the potential for sam's abilities to draw out the worst in him the way it did in max, responds by calmly asking sam to try telekinesis again, asks how he did it the first time as a way to problem-solve, and tries to offer sam the comfort that it was probably a one-off AFTER sam himself seems distressed

before assuring sam of his companionship and protection once again

and then there's also the s2 dean who calls sam a freak but again it's with lightness

freak(affectionate) not freak(derogatory) the way ruby paints it and the way sam thinks of himself

but anyway, back to no rest for the wicked

ruby, still steering the conversation like she has been from the beginning, pushes all of sam's issues with himself aside and reminds him why he summoned her in the first place, what he wants to do, and what she can offer to help him succeed in his objective

notably, there's an implied "you and me" in the way she says "we" here, excluding dean again and making sam reliant on her

and god but sam's body language after

the way he's looking down unable to meet her eyes lips thin jaw tense. masterful work from jared. he looks like a kid all unsure of himself and fully submitting to someone else's wisdom like ruby's his trusted adult (she replaces dean here! which has always been the plan because sam defers to no one else like he defers to dean! because dean may be flawed and an asshole but dean looks out for him! dean can be trusted! but dean isn't here isn't helpful and ruby is! this is the samruby s4 dynamic's genesis, what we're seeing here is their labor contractions *please insert genevieve's comment about ruby "giving birth" to s4 sam here*)

and here it is, her masterstroke, what the point of this whole manufactured combative back-and-forth has been for

ruby hammers home this notion of sam not needing to respect or like her but internalizing that he can trust her regardlesss (he can't and he shouldn't but he will)

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