#and lilith has laser eyes too imo | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

hippychick006 · 6 years

Text

4.21 - When the Levee Breaks

or the one where Dean needs to read “the idiots guide to detoxing your little brother of demon blood” Also the one where Castiel is revealed to be a lying skank who tricks Dean and lets Sam out of the panic room.

This episode is heartbreaking from start to finish. I get why people have trouble re-watching it, because it is painful seeing the brothers as broken as they are and at such odds with one another. It’s an amazing episode though and everyone involved knocks it out of the park.

This post is very long, but since the episode frequently gets misinterpreted, I want to make sure all the important dialogue is in here. It’s a critical episode because it shows heaven’s betrayal (hell’s betrayal is coming up in the next episode). I personally wish both had been shown in the same episode and I wish that Kripke hadn’t went back on the angel betrayal with Castiel growing a pair at the last minute. It completely unbalances the season. Anyway, I’m going to stow the bitterness for that episode and concentrate only on this one.

We open on the panic room. Sam’s inside - and would it have been too much to give him a television or an xbox (other gaming stations are available). Dean opens the window in the door and they have a conversation, the best part of which is:

Sam: Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have lied to you. Just open the door. Dean: You don't have to apologize. It's not your fault. It's not your fault that you lied to me over and over again. I get it now. You couldn't help it. Sam: I'm not some junkie! Dean: Really? I guess I've just imagined how strung out you've been lately. Sam: You're actually trying to twist this into some kind of ridiculous drug intervention?

Upshot of the conversation is that Dean thinks Sam is weak, desperate and pathetic and he’s earned himself a benchwarmer seat to the apocalypse.

Also, this important line, for people that conveniently forget that Dean was also wanting to kill Lilith (and therefore unknowingly break the first seal): “Oh, Lilith's gonna die. Bobby and I will kill her. But not with you.”

Dean closes the door and returns upstairs, we hear Sam screaming to be let out.

Sam’s not doing well, he’s strung out and having hallucinations (and kudos on Jared for this entire episode). First hallucination is Alastair who is delighted to see Sam again and wonders how they’ll pass the time. Cue Sam strapped onto a torture bed. Sadly, since it’s Sam’s hallucination and not really Alastair, Sam gets to keep his clothes on (which Ruby didn’t in a previous episode).

Torture scene is difficult to watch, so thankfully we switch to Dean and Bobby, in Bobby’s study, where Sam’s screams aren’t quite so loud. Dean and Bobby are having whisky which is... nice for them I guess. Dean is listening to Sam’s screams and asks Bobby how long this is going to go on.

Bobby: Here, let me look it up in my demon-detox manual. Oh wait. No one ever wrote one. No telling how long it'll take. Hell, or if Sam will even live through it.

Heh. The phone goes at that point, Bobby answers with: “Hello. ...Suck dirt and die, Rufus. You call me again, I'll kill you.”

I would watch a whole season of just Bobby and Rufus, hunting back in the seventies. That would be fun. Anyway, when Rufus calls back, it appears that Rufus “knows”. Not sure what it is that he knows right now.

Back to Sam in the panic room and Sam discovers he’s no longer bound and being tortured. Alastair has disappeared, but wee!Sam is there and he’s pissed that they didn’t get to be normal.

Sam: I'm sorry. I am. But life doesn't turn out the way you thought when you were fourteen years old. We were never gonna be normal. We were never gonna get away. Grow up. Wee!Sam: Maybe you're right. Maybe there's no escape. After all, how can you run from what's inside you? [Wee!Sam’s eyes turn yellow].

I love Jared and Colin’s interaction here. We’ve never seen them interact together on screen so it’s great that we got this scene between them.

Back to Bobby and Dean. Rufus was calling about the seals; 3 have broken in a single day. Bobby questions “ is now really the right time to be having this little domestic drama of ours?”

Dean: So what? Sacrifice Sam's life, his soul, for the greater good? Is that what you're saying? Times are bad, so let's use Sam as a nuclear warhead? Bobby: Look, I know you hate me for suggesting it. I hate me for suggesting it. I love that boy like a son. All I'm saying is maybe he's here right now instead of on the battlefield because we love him too much.

Back to the panic room and Sam’s getting worse. He hallucinates his mom this time. She tells him he looks awful. This is the most important hallucination so far, because hallucination!mary tells Sam exactly what he wants to hear. It’s the one that justifies to Sam what he’s doing (obviously this is all in Sam’s head). As an aside, I had to look up Samantha’s eye colour because I thought they were greenish and they are, a very light colour, but in this entire scene they were dark, almost black.

Sam tells Mary to go ahead and tell him she’s disappointed, “You never thought I'd turn out this way. I'm a piss-poor excuse for a son. Your heart is broken. Am I close?”

Mary says no, that Sam’s doing the right thing, and that she’s proud of him. That Dean doesn’t understand the hard choices or what needs to be done to get the job done. Hallucination!Mary confirms Sam’s suspicions that what’s inside him is evil and Sam questions if Dean’s right, is it stronger than Sam.

Hallucination!Mary: Dean can never know how strong you are, because Dean is weak. Look at what he's done to you. Locking you in here? He's terrified. He's in over his head. You have to go on without him. You have what it takes. You have to kill Lilith.

Sam: Even if it kills me. Mary: Make my death mean something. I'm counting on you, Sam. Don't let anyone or anything get in your way. Not even Dean.

Dean’s outside in the scrap yard. It appears he’s been screaming for the angels for the last few hours. Castiel finally turns up and he’s pissy. Yet again, their entire conversation is laser focused on Sam - so much for Destiel. All they ever talk about is the “eye fking”. They aren’t ever actually listening to their conversation at all. As an experiment, replace Misha in all of these scenes with Zachariah and then question whether Destiel exists on screen. The answer is a resounding no. It exists in fantasy, not because of their dialogue or interactions or that it makes sense to the story, but because 2 unrelated hot guys are on screen at the same time (though I strongly dispute one of them is hot imo, even back then).

Anyway, Dean asks Castiel to tell him what he was going to tell him before he was yanked back up to heaven. Castiel answers it was nothing of import.

Dean: You got ass-reamed in heaven but it was not of import? Castiel: Dean, I can't. I'm sorry. Get to the reason you really called me. It's about Sam, right? [bolding this for the hellers benefit because it is always about Sam].

Dean asks if Sam can do it, can he kill Lilith. Castiel answers possibly, but that Sam would have to take certain steps, that; “Consuming the amount of blood it would take to kill Lilith would change your brother forever. Most likely, he would become the next creature that you would feel compelled to kill. There's no reason this would have to come to pass, Dean. We believe it's you, Dean, not your brother. The only question for us is whether you're willing to accept it. Stand up and accept your role. You are the one who will stop it.”

Dean: If I do this, Sammy doesn't have to? Castiel: If it gives you comfort to see it that way. Dean: God, you're a dick these days.

If I can interject at this point; he’s always been a dick, Dean. He’s just the least dickish of all the angels we’ve met so far.

Dean walks away and sighs: Fine, I'm in.

I want to be very clear here. Dean thinks he’s agreeing to stop Lilith so that Sam doesn’t have to. He thinks he’s agreeing to stop the apocalypse. This is an outright lie on Castiel’s part. He already knows at this point that the plan is for Sam to break the final seal to start the apocalypse and that Dean’s only role is as Michael’s vessel to fight Lucifer once he’s free. This betrayal is so much more than just letting Sam out of the panic room. why do people gloss over this? Tell me again why I should like Castiel? This is why the narrative that started at the end of season 11 (that Cass is best friend, brother even) pisses me off.

Dean has to swear he gives himself wholly over to the service of god and the angels. He asks what’s next? Castiel answers to wait and they’ll call when it’s time. This scene takes ages to fade away from and Cass and Dean are both just standing there awkwardly for several seconds. Bad editing.

Believe it or not, we are only just a third of the way through this episode. Sorry, but blame decent writing!

Back to the panic room, and I was wrong earlier, Sam has magazines for entertainment, including “Weekly woodsman”. He’s sitting on the floor and he’s jittery. The veins on his hands turn black and he gets up to look in the mirror, the veins in his face turn black too. He screams for help.

Cut to Dean who ignores the screams.

Bobby: Correct me if I'm wrong, but you willingly signed up to be the angels' bitch?

Note it’s plural, angels not angel, so no, this line is not ship pandering and Bobby is correct, because that’s exactly what Dean’s done.

Dean glares at Bobby and Bobby amends, “'m sorry. You prefer 'sucker'? After everything you said about them, now you trust them?”

Dean: Come on, give me a little credit, Bobby. I've never trusted them less. I mean, they come on like shady politicians from planet Vulcan. Bobby: Then why in the hell did you— Dean: Because what other option do I have? It's either trust the angels or let Sammy trust a demon?

SEASON 4 IN A SINGLE LINE!

Both suddenly realise that it’s went quiet and rush to the panic room. They open the window in the door and see that Sam’s having a fit on the floor.

Dean: What if he's faking? Bobby: You really think he would? Dean: I think he'd do anything.

Sam suddenly starts being thrown around the walls.

Bobby: That ain’t faking.

No shit Sherlock. They rush in to help.

Sam wakes up strapped down to the bed and this episode isn’t getting any less traumatic to watch, even for a hurt!Sam fan. He can sit up at least and we see Dean is in the room. This is a great scene between Jared and Jensen. They have an argument about why Sam did this to himself, leading to;

Dean: Revenge for what? For sending me to hell? Did you happen to notice I'm back? Alive and kicking. So what's the point? Sam: Point? How about 'stop the damn apocalypse'?

We see that Sam is talking to himself so this is Hallucination!Dean.

Hallucination!Dean: My gig. Not yours. The angels said so, remember? God picked me, man. So you got any other fantastic excuses? Hmm?

Back with Bobby and the real Dean and Bobby is still having doubts about what they are doing. He thinks the demon blood isn’t killing Sam, they are.

Bobby: I'm sorry. I can't bite my tongue any longer. We're killing him. Keeping him locked up down there. This cold-turkey thing isn't working. If—if he doesn't get what he needs, soon, Sam's not gonna last much longer. Dean: No. I'm not giving him demon blood. I won't do it. Bobby: And if he dies? Dean: Then at least he dies human!

I down a third of the whisky bottle as we go back to hallucination!Dean and Sam. He tells Sam he knows why he drinks the demon blood. That Sam’s never felt normal his entire life. “You were always a monster...”

Back to the real Dean with Bobby: “I would die for him in a second, but I won't let him do this to himself. I can't. I guess I found my line. I won't let my brother turn into a monster.”

Takes a deep breath before returning to Sam in the panic room. Hallucination!Dean’s still talking: “And I tried so hard to pretend that we were brothers. That you weren't one of the filthy things that we hunt. But we're not even the same species. You're nothing to me.”

Sam: Don't say that to me. Don't you say that to me.

Sam turns away and when he turns back, Dean has disappeared. Sam falls asleep, exhausted. We see the passage of time from the window above the bed as day turns to night. Love these shots.

We stay on Sam as he wakes up. The hand and foot cuffs are shown to open, as does the panic room door. I think Sam still thinks he’s hallucinating at first, but realises it’s real and he escapes. As he walks up the stairs, we see that skank angel in a trench coat formerly known as Castiel, close and lock the panic room door.

Bobby and Dean are asleep as Sam slips past them.

The skank angel in a trench coat formerly known as Castiel, is at the docks. Anna appears and asks why he let Sam out when Dean was trying to stop him. Castiel says he was following orders and says Anna shouldn’t have come. Angels come and take Anna away. Another betrayal.

This next scene is heartbreaking (and that’s in an entire episode of scenes that are heartbreaking). Sam’s trying to steal a car and we hear a gun cocking (will that word get past the new censorship on here? I doubt it). It’s Bobby. Jim and Jared just kill this scene. Bobby tells Sam he’s going back to the panic room. Sam says no and that Bobby won’t shoot him. Bobby says not to test him, that they are trying to help Sam.

Sam walks forward until the gun touches his stomach, he raises it and holds it against his chest and says “Then shoot.” Bobby doesn’t of course, and Sam grabs the gun and knocks him out. We can see that it devastated him to have to do that. He drives off.

SEND MORE WHISKY!

Dean and Bobby investigate the panic room, wondering how Sam got out. They suspect demons, Ruby in particular. Me screaming at the television right now: NO, IT WAS THAT SKANK IN A TRENCH COAT FORMERLY KNOWN AS CASTIEL! Dean hopes that Sam is with Ruby when he catches up to him, “'Cause killing her's the next big item on my to-do list.”

Bobby: I thought you were on call for angel duty. Dean: I am on call. In my car, on my way to murder the bitch.

As he leaves the room, Bobby says, “Sam don't wanna be found, which means he's gonna be damn near impossible to find.” Oh Bobby, this is Dean we’re talking about. He knows his brother inside out - which is why I can’t understand his approach in this entire episode.

Sam’s in a very nice room (compared to their usual standards). He’s jittery. Ruby arrives, Sam asks if Ruby let him out. Ruby says no. Sam says he’s been trying to get her for weeks, Ruby says she’s been busy trying to find Lilith.

Ruby: I'm sorry you're hurting. Really. I had no idea that Dean would do that to you. Sam: You and me both.

He confirms he knows Dean’s going to come after him, that Dean knows exactly which habits, aliases and motels he’d pick. Which is why they are switching it up in the honeymoon suite in Sam’s attempt to shake him.

Ruby: It won't be easy. I mean, he knows you better than anyone. Sam: Not as well as he thinks.

Sam’s had enough talking and drinks Ruby’s blood.

Dean’s still at the scrap yard, I think he’s fixing baby, and I love mechanic!Dean scenes. Bobby tells him the cops found his stolen car and 2 more have been reported where it was found: One “nice and anonymous like Sam likes” and the other “White oh-five Escalade with custom rims. It's a neon sign.”

Dean: You're right. He'd never take that. Which is exactly what he did. Bobby: You think? Dean: I know that kid...

Back to Sam and Ruby, and there’s a lot in this scene. Ruby says they’re down to the final couple of seals and Ruby’s found out that the final seal can only be broken by Lucifer’s first - the first human soul he tempted and twisted; Lilith. So Sam figures out if he can get to Lilith first and kill her, the apocalypse will be stopped. Ruby says she’s closing in on a member of Lilith’s entourage; her personal chef.

Sam: Chef? Seriously? What does she eat?

Ruby: You don’t wanna know.

And it turns out that no we didn’t want to know. We really, really didn’t want to know, because Lilith eats babies.

Back at the motel, Ruby tells Sam that he’s going to need more blood than she can give him. Sam sighs, and Ruby thinks it’s because Sam still has problems with the blood drinking. That’s not what it is, Sam’s fine with the blood drinking, he’s just thinking about Dean (of course he is).

Sam: I just—I wish he'd trusted me, you know?

Ruby: Sorry. Sam: I just hope...you know, when all this is over...I hope we can fix things.

Dean’s driving and Bobby tells him the cops found the Escalade dumped in a ditch. The town near there is lighting up with demon signs, so Dean will head for there. Bobby gives some sage advice:

Bobby: Us finding Sam? It's gotta be about getting him back, not pushing him away. Dean: Right. Bobby: I know you're mad, Dean. I understand. You got a right to be, but I'm just saying. Be good to him anyway. You gotta get through to him. Dean doesn’t respond and hangs up.

We see Sam leave the motel room. We also see Dean waiting and he goes in when Sam leaves. He tries to kill Ruby with the demon knife, but it appears Sam has forgotten something. He stops Dean. Dean says solid try on trying to ditch him. Sam says he’s glad Dean’s here and wants to talk.

Dean: Soon as she's dead, we can talk all you want.

Sam tells Ruby to go. Dean moves to stop her, and Sam moves to stop him. I can’t with this next scene. A very long scene that needs to be watched carefully. Dean says Ruby is poison and that she’s been manipulating Sam. Sam says he’s wrong.

Dean: Sam, you're lying to yourself. I just want you to be okay. You would do the same for me. You know you would. Sam: Just listen for a second. We got a lead on a demon close to Lilith. Come with us, Dean. We'll do this together. Dean: That sounds great. As long as it's you and me. Demon bitch is a deal breaker. You kiss her goodbye, we can go right now.

Sam says he can’t, that he needs her to help him kill Lilith. “I know you can't wrap your head around it, but maybe one day you'll understand. I'm the only one who can do this, Dean.” Dean: No, you're not the one who's gonna do this. Sam: Right, that's right, I forgot. The angels think it's you. Dean: You don't think I can? Sam: No. You can't. You're not strong enough. Dean: And who the hell are you? Sam: I'm being practical here. I'm doing what needs to be done.

Dean: Yeah? You're not gonna do a single damn thing. Sam: Stop bossing me around, Dean. Look. My whole life, you take the wheel, you call the shots, and I trust you because you are my brother. Now I'm asking you, for once, trust me. Dean: No. You don't know what you're doing, Sam. Sam: Yes, I do. Dean: Then that's worse. Sam: Why? Look, I'm telling you— Dean: Because it's not something that you're doing, it's what you are! It means— Sam: What? No. Say it. [Sam has tears and mine are starting as I know what;s coming.]

Dean: It means you're a monster.

Sam turns away so he misses that a tear slips down Dean’s face. Sam turns back and punches Dean and the brother fight is on. Sam’s hopped up on demon blood, so gets the upper hand. Dean’s on the floor and Sam chokes him [I think this is finally the anger we’ve been told about all season but has only appeared in the last episode]. Just as it looks like Sam is going to kill Dean, he stops himself.

Sam: You don't know me. You never did. And you never will.

Dean: You walk out that door, don't you ever come back.

The episode is finished and so is the whisky. The anger management toy is in pieces and I need another picture of Zachariah for the dart board before the next episode.

I don’t know how anyone can watch this episode and think either of the brothers had the moral high ground. They were both wrong.

Dean chose to trust heaven rather than Sam and they betrayed him in this very episode (though obviously Dean doesn’t know that right now). And in something that annoys me very much, he never learns the full extent of their betrayal - he never finds out about the panic room or the altered voicemail in the next episode.

Sam trusts Ruby. She will betray him in the very next episode (though obviously neither Sam nor us know that right now).

They both chose to trust other people, who betray them both, instead of who they should have been trusting all along; each other.

Up next, Lucifer Rising. I hate it. So need caffeine before I attempt to watch, but I’ll try and get through it tonight to complete analysis of Season 4.

#supernatural #season 4 #rewatch #4.21 #when the levee breaks #episode review

9 notes · View notes