#and the reverse is true for dean of course

[yoannspn]

This was my second entry for the SPN Eldritch Reverse Bang 2025

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Author: roxymissrose Pairing: Dean Winchester/Sam Winchester Words: 10,591 Tags: Horror Summary: Dean wakes up alone in the car in the dark. Well, sure, of course he is. Sam's gone, Stanford's got him. But that's wrong, Sam's back, with him. He's pretty sure he's back. So, if that's true, then where is Sam?

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If you haven't read this, please go and do it. Roxy always delivers with her fics and this is not the exception. It's such a creepy tell. Perfection. And do not forget to check the full art for Reverb here.

[monstermoviedean]

i so so get your feelings about the michael arc as a whole, just spilling some added thoughts here, feel free to ignore, i just wanted to make it an ask so this mess wouldn't be an rb

the michael arc has a whole other layer of unfairness to me because it follows so much of the same plot threads as sam's issues with lucifer in season 4-5 and then hurts dean in a way they never hurt sam. when sam was panicked over what being lucifer's vessel meant and running around on cases, dean supports him (despite getting no sympathy when michael is also revealed). in s14 however sam not only, obviously, actively brings up dean's very valid fears like they're just him abandoning family (sammy, honey, look at your track record) and works behind his back with others. sam in the cage = dean in the malak box. but dean trusted sam to let him go, no matter how much it killed him. sam frames dean doing the exact same thing as another issue of trust. also also also if i remember right, sam wasn't even possesed by lucifer as long as dean and cas were by the archangels!!! not dismissing his cage trauma ofc, but there is a very clear level of repression that sam is trying to keep concerning everything, which also leads him making some bullheaded statements to dean.

like it's insane how they speedran the archangel vessel trauma from s4-s5 with michael, but proceeded to have no aftermath resolution for any of it. nor did they have sam really support and dare i say, comfort, dean, the way the reverse happened. (and obviously dean made his own mistakes in s4-s5 with sam, but the ratio is completely different). anyways, just found the repeated themes interesting and thought you might too

oh this is soooooo tasty thank you so much!!! i especially love it when people send me stuff like this that helps me connect dots. i hadn't connected the dots on how much of a speedrun this is! but holy crap. it really is!

they spend almost all of season 5 working on the lucifer + michael vessel buildup, and then most of season 6 and part of season 7 deals with the aftermath of sam's decision to say yes. to be clear, i don't have any issue with that! it makes sense in context and a lot of it is well-done. and i certainly don't begrudge the show for highlighting sam's feelings about being lucifer's vessel. but even if we round down, even if we say it's just one season of sam having this vessel arc, that's still way, way more than dean got.

i don't want this to sound like "wah sam got more screen time than dean" because that's absolutely not my issue. my issue is that both in their universe and in our universe, sam and dean can have the same exact problem and their problems can be assigned different levels of weight and attention. is this 100% true 100% of the time? no, of course not. but when it comes to being a vessel, the effects on sam are highlighted. the effects on dean are downplayed.

like you said - even in s5 dean barely gets to react to being michael's vessel. he gets one episode (05x18) to really consider it and we all know how that goes for him. and in s13-14 it's just as minimized. dean gets less than 5 minutes in 13x23 to concoct his plan. this isn't something he's agonized over. this isn't something that is foreshadowed even a little bit. and then dean is possessed for an unknown length of time. in my opinion, it was probably a few months.

that's a huge deal. that is a HUGE deal. even if he's possessed for the minimum amount of time necessitated by the episodes, it's still probably a month. i don't remember how long sam was possessed for in 05x22, but i'm pretty sure it was less than a month.

is length of time the only thing that matters here? nope! definitely not! in no way do i mean to suggest that dean automatically had it worse than sam simply because he was possessed for longer. as you point out, the cage.

but this brings me to one of my biggest issues with the whole arc: sam not showing a single speck of empathy for dean. as you noted - sam is going through it, he is feeling emotions and recalling memories that he has repressed, and i understand why those could come out in ways that are less than healthy. totally get it. but it is still just downright awful to watch sam talk to dean the way he does, especially knowing sam has been exactly where dean was.

dean doesn't do a perfect job handling sam being lucifer's vessel. no doubt. i don't remember it that well at this point; it's been a while since i've seen season 5. but look at what he says to sam when sam has made up his mind to say yes:

SAM: You're gonna let me say yes? DEAN: No. That's the thing. It's not on me to let you do anything. You're a grown – well, overgrown – man. If this is what you want, I'll back your play. SAM: That's the last thing I thought you'd ever say. DEAN: Might be. I'm not gonna lie to you, though. It goes against every fiber I got. I mean, truth is… You know, watching out for you… it's kinda been my job, you know? But more than that, it's… it's kinda who I am. You're not a kid anymore, Sam, and I can't keep treating you like one. Maybe I got to grow up a little, too. I don't know if we got a snowball's chance. But… But I do know that if anybody can do it… it's you. SAM: Thank you.

dean says it's not up to him to decide for sam, and while he doesn't necessarily like his decision, he respects it. and he wants sam to know that. he goes out of his way to comfort sam and to build him up, to support him. and it's a shocking contrast to what sam says when dean tells him about the ma'lak box plan. it's even more shocking when compared to sam trying to talk dean out of it.

does sam need to be 100% supportive and kind all the time? nope! but the way he goes about this is just so incredibly self-centered and so actively harmful to dean. as you mentioned - he frames it as dean abandoning his family. he also suggests dean is "giving up," "quitting," refusing to believe in/trust sam. i yelled about this yesterday but sam is, whether intentionally or not, picking at all of dean's worst fears while dean is facing down another worst fear and feeling shame for feeling fear. sam says and does some pretty awful things and dean does not get to respond to any of it. he just moves on. it's like it's not his story so it doesn't matter what he feels or how he's treated.

and to know that all of this gets heaped on dean - guilt for saying yes, guilt for letting michael out, guilt for "leaving the door open," guilt for what michael did, guilt for not being "strong enough" to keep him contained, guilt for "abandoning" sam, plus the very VERY real trauma of being possessed for a long stretch of time, plus what's about to happen to mary and jack - to know all of this happens back-to-back-to-back? that's hard enough. but to not even let him react to any of it? to force him to keep going as if this is all business as usual and he should just suck it up? so much worse.

and i'm just going to go ahead and assume sam never apologizes for any of it. i may be wrong. please correct me if i'm wrong.

[schizosamwincester]

Good morning. Please consider omega/omega wincest.

Hunting is no job for omegas, obviously. Ghosts are generally fine, but anything worse will smell the slick and the hormones a mile away. John's had them both on heat suppressants and scent blockers since their first heats.

Sam came off them at Stanford. Hiding your secondary gender isn't very normal, after all. He gets right back on when Jess is gone. He tells Dean it's because he's hunting again, but that's not the truth. The truth is that he doesn't want to go through heat without his mate.

Dean never has. It's advised to have a natural heat at least every few years, but well... Who's gonna tell Dean that? It's not like he goes to the doctor. And even if he did, it's not like he'd listen. Dean has responsibilities. He's got hunting to do and family to protect. He can't be laid up for a week soaked in his own slick.

When they finally get together, Sam spends years trying to convince Dean that they should go off the blockers and rent a little cabin and have a heat together. Dean only relents when Sam says that he's going to do it whether Dean does or not, because it's been long enough that he needs to do it for health reasons. Dean can't just leave his Sammy to weather a heat alone, after all.

Of course, Sam's the one who's far, far more experienced at heats at this point, so he ends up being the one to help Dean. It's a lovely role reversal when compared to Sam's first heat, where Dean was sticking close by, making sure he ate and placing wet washcloths on his forehead. Dean had been so surprised, because obviously bold, defiant Sammy was going to be an alpha, but well... when that turned out not to be true, Dean took care of him like always. Now Sam is taking care of him, in more ways than one.

[ananke-xiii]

Amelia Richardson didn't stand a chance (but at least she survived).

I'll be honest with you, I genuinely feel sorry for Amelia's character.

I think that, between she and Benny, she was the one who drew the short straw and ended up being written as a sort of bland mixture of the "Magical Girlfriend" and the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" tropes (Benny is written the same way but the resulting mixture is less bland and more savoury). It's like as if she was created in order to not be liked no matter what. Add to this mix the actor who played her wasn't really selling it (and had close to 0 chemistry with Jared Padalecki) and here we have our own very Amelia Richardson Who Never Stood A Chance But At Least Survived.

I've read a theory according to which Amelia is not real, she's just a figment of Sam's imagination (I'll link it when I find it I just remember it but have no idea where I've read it, sorry). I think it's a solid theory and canon has given us a lot of hints about Sam's imaginative ways to deal with reality's hardships (Sully comes to mind, of course, but also Sam was having hallucinations and had been held in the psychiatric ward of a hospital in S7).

But the funny thing about Amelia is that she doesn't need to be literally fictive because she's so unrealistically real that the end result is the same. In other words, Amelia's function as a character is so obvious that she can never be "Just Amelia". Everything about her story is there to serve Sam's story and nothing more. And it shows. A lot. Too much.

The first warning of Amelia's "disposableness" is that she's a human from the non-hunting world. As such she's also the unfortunate signifier of a well-known concept in "Supernatural": the Apple Pie Life. Amelia can never be "Just Amelia" because she must primarily represent the "normal", the "natural" world. And in "Supernatural" the "normal" world is always fictive. There's no real "normal" world in this show, there's only the "normal" world as imagined by Sam and Dean. And for Sam and Dean access to the "normal" world has always been portrayed as access to a woman from the non-hunting world. She's a distorted version of the "Magical Girlfriend" trope in that she doesn't possess magical qualities but she serves the function of being the magical key for the hero to enter the magical, imagined, fictive "normal" world. It's the reversal of S9 "Slumber Party", a whole-ass episode about girls and keys and doors to magical worlds. She's just the perfect girl to enter into Sam's life: she gets him because she's also on the run, she gets him because she's also a mess, she gets him because she's also lost someone. She ticks all the boxes and she's just what Sam needed.

The second warning is that she's a little bit too Manic Pixie Dream Girl to be a "real" character. She blows up the disposal by jamming lime rinds down the drain, she makes "spaghetti and sliced hot-dogs" for dinner as a tradition when she moves into a new house, she's the chubby kid who wabbles up on stage dragging toilet paper behind her, she immediatley clocks Sam as a drifter, a serial killer, a white supremacist, a creep and tells him to his face instead of, I don't know, make a mental note of never talk to that man again. But she's quirky like that. She also has no goal of her own. Her life seems to be completely dependent first on her husband and then on Sam: Sam's found the new house, Sam's in charge of the relocation, Sam's never had a birthday cake so here, have one, Sam's a mess but she's also a mess so they're happy together.

For a character written like this the moment Sam leaves their shared house means the moment we stop caring about her. We're invested in Amelia's life as long as Sam's in there, otherwise aurevoir Amelia. To be honest, I think this is true for all characters in SPN and particularly for all human characters who first must participate in the hunters' world to earn their place in the story and second must somehow connect with Sam and Dean. The proof of this "theory" are AU!Bobby and AU!Charlie: they're the same characters that we used to like but without their connection to Sam and Dean do we really care about them? Are we invested in their stories? Personally no. However, compare and contrast Amelia with Benny and people seem to be more interested in the latter's backstory, even if it's got nothing to do with the brothers. Why? Simple: he's better written than Amelia and doesn't share the same burden of representing the "Apple Pie Life" (which is, as we all know, an elemental theme for the series). Of course, he does represent other things but ultimately Benny's given the possibility to be "Just Benny" as a character who's surely serving the narrative needs (aka the brothers' needs) but who's also a complete character in his own right. Proof of this is that by s15 Benny's still mentioned and showed as part of the narrative while Amelia disappears from it the moment Sam leaves her life for the second time.

So I feel sorry for her character because she's flat, unremarkable and ultimately...boring. Even Daphne from S7, a character who has one scene and one scene only, feels more exciting than Amelia who, on the other hand, got herself a whole narrative arc. I feel like she's understandably not a character fans are fond of but it's not her fault, it's not like she's done something, she's just... drawn that way. The good thing is that at least she survived so I guess every cloud has a silver lining.

[scoobydoodean]

sam tricking dean into seeing a faith healer (and getting healed) by saying it was a specialist is something i dont see discussed imo because its akin to violating medical consent?

like dean was going to die and hed pretty much accepted it. but sam hadnt.

dean literally asks him "youre not gonna let me die in peace, are you?"

at no point does sam think about what dean wants. dean is the one dying, but its sam who decides that they cant just accept, its sam who goes looking for a supernatural cure, its sam who tricks dean into going to see a faith healer. its all sam sam sam.

when dean is the one dying; he is the one who should get to make these choices. if dean decides he doesnt want to spend his last week's alive chasing down a cure, that should be final. the decision should be deans alone because dean is the one dying, not sam.

sam should have respected deans decision. but sam didnt and yeah its understandable his brother is dying and all, but then he deliberately misleads dean so hell agree to go to nebraska to see the specialist who dean - reasonably - assumes is a doctor.

if nothing else, the deception alone is equal to violating medical consent. its the equivalent of leading a patient into believing theyre going to receive one treatment and then giving them another.

maybe its the angry disabled in me, but it frustrates me to no end when samgirls talk about dean always making decisions for sam when sam uwu baby winchester decides dean doesnt even get to make decisions for himself when hes fucking dying.

So I will say—I don't think Dean wanted to die after his heart got damaged in 1.12. I think he didn't think Sam could do anything and because of that, he was ready to accept the reality of death. He actually expected Sam to be willing to leave him behind, but when Sam wasn't and actually wanted to try and save him, I do think Dean was touched by that and was willing to go along with it. We see that Dean doesn't want to die in 2.01, when Ghost!Dean pleads with Sam and John to save his life, and in 1.22 when Dean begs John "Don't you let it kill me."

Sam most certainly did lie by omission about where he was taking Dean though. He knew Dean wouldn't be amenable to seeing some christian faith healer in a tent, so he omitted certain details to get him in the car. Sam does something very similar in 3.15 "Time Is On My Side".

While Dean was willing to try (thus his willingness to see a specialist), he wasn't really down to see the religious faith healer—that's absolutely true—and if we reversed the situation and Dean had done this to Sam, samgirls would never shut up about it. For me personally, Sam's unhinged ploys to save Dean are one of his more entertaining qualities though. Even if I don't always like how it works out, I enjoy seeing Sam do extremely unhinged things and easily brush it under the rug afterwards.

What's more troublesome to me is that in taking Dean to see this faith healer, ushering him into the tent when Dean is really too sick to put up more than verbal protests, and then insisting Dean sit up front and then go up on stage (with added pressure from the crowd)... the outcome of that is... terrible. Of course, it's something terrible that Sam does not know about or expect. Sam didn't know that when Dean got healed, someone else would die. But the simple fact is that Sam easily dismissed it.

DEAN Wait, wait, wait. So, Marshall Hall died to save me? SAM Dean, the guy probably would've died anyway. And someone else would've been healed.

Dean didn't have such an easy time. Dean had to live with it. Dean had to contend with the knowledge that not only had someone died so he could be healed, but that his life was saved over Layla's life, which made him feel terrible. The entire situation made Dean feel so guilty and horrible and wrong that he stopped running from the reaper at the end of the episode and planned to let it kill him so that Layla could live, and all of this resulted from a situation that started with... Sam tricking Dean. Is it any wonder that Dean immediately says "No" in 3.01 when Sam wants to take him to another faith healer?

[ao3wincest]

Reverb

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/AM8DIth by roxymissrose Dean wakes up alone in the car in the dark. Well, sure, of course he is. Sam's gone, Stanford's got him. But that's wrong, Sam's back, with him. He's pretty sure he's back. So, if that's true, then where is Sam? Words: 10591, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Supernatural (TV 2005) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: M/M Characters: Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester Relationships: Dean Winchester/Sam Winchester Additional Tags: SPN Eldritch Reverse Bang 2025, AU Season 1, Horror, Implied/Attempted Sexual Assault, Pining, SPN Eldritch Bang read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/AM8DIth

[twofrontteethstillcrooked]

Liminal: 1 Oct. Suptober snippetfic

"Perfect sleeping weather." Dean slowly propped himself up on his elbows, all his weight otherwise pinning Cas in place. His smile grew wider. "If you were thinking about going to sleep."

deancas, post-first time au; very slightly spicy

Cas didn't know the blanket had slipped down until a thin, cool draft curled along his spine. He looked over and saw Dean had left the nearest window cracked open. 

"Hmm?" Dean hummed, his breath warm at Cas's throat.

"It's supposed to be in the low 50s tonight." Cas pulled at the blanket until it relented, letting itself be retucked around Dean's shoulders. Cas shivered as the fabric settled against his own skin. He could feel Dean smile. The smoke-scented October air was almost as bracing.

"Perfect sleeping weather." Dean slowly propped himself up on his elbows, all his weight otherwise pinning Cas in place. His smile grew wider. "If you were thinking about going to sleep."

He dipped his head to kiss Cas like it was already the easiest thing, like they'd been kissing one another for months, no hesitations, his mouth hot and soft and sure. When he shifted his body a bit to the side he laid his palm in the center of Cas's chest, as if to claim him, as though Cas might try to squirm away.

What was the saying? Cas thought. Possession was nine-tenths of the law? Angels needed express permission to occupy a human's vessel. The reverse wasn't true, but Dean had long possessed Cas. Hester had it wrong, of course (angels were, it turned out, often wrong). When Cas first laid a hand on Dean, it saved them both. 

Maybe no threshold he crossed would ever be more important than that one. He just hadn't understood before, not really, that what had been undertaken roughly an hour ago might change him just as thoroughly. He knew how Dean kissed now, how he tasted; how he sounded when Cas was inside him. He loved Dean in every way he knew to love someone and somehow, after everything, Dean loved him too.

"Hey, Cas," Dean whispered, smile faded and eyes gentle. "You all right?"

Cas nodded, eyes on Dean's. He leaned into him as Dean traced away a wetness along his jaw with his thumb. Cas sighed with contentment. 

"Wanna get lost again?" Dean asked, low and close like a mind-reader, an ensorceler. 

"Yes," Cas agreed against Dean's mouth, and pushed the blanket to the floor.

[hekate1308]

There Was Winter’s Cold A Destiel Advent Calendar December 14

Masterpost

He knew there was no way in which he could get out of this but one. No matter what, Ellen would show up at his place if he did not explain to her who Cas was and what he was doing here right now; if he got lucky, she would send Bobby, but he couldn’t count on it.

It was his own fault, really. Someone must have seen them, and he was pretty sure that, if one didn’t happen to be Cas, it was pretty obvious that he thought he was really hot, too, so…

No wonder anyone would get a wrong impression.

And it wasn’t as if he had a good track record with relationships. Granted, they had not all ended catastrophically, some had fizzled out, but had never even come close to finding hat Sam had with Jess, so naturally his family was worried about him when he met someone new. Of the situation had ben reversed, Dean would have been a little confused too. After all, here he was, usually not ready to let anyone get too close, and now he had a guy living with him – staying with him, he corrected himself. Cas wouldn’t be staying forever of course, so he was just – staying – no, that didn’t work.

Still, he really, really should have seen this coming, even thought, he suddenly realized – now wait a moment. It was far from the first time that he let someone else stay with him, and even someone who was going through a rough time, someone who had nowhere else to go. Quite frankly, that was how he had met both Benny and Charlie, and in the case of the former, Sam was still wary of him, even though he had left the motorbike gang before he had ever met Dean, not that it mattered at the moment.

“Yeah, his name is Cas.”

“Cas?”

He belatedly realized that that was not a normal name, but there was no way out of it now. “Castiel. An angel name. Very religious family, only recently left them, so he didn’t have a place to stay.”

“Dean, tell me you didn’t get mixed up in a cult.”

Oh no. “No, no, don’t worry Ellen. He’s been hitchhiking since then, he’s pretty far away from home now.” Alright, not technically true since the river was pretty close, but speaking metaphorically…

“And you are sure it’s safe?”

“Yeah, I’m a big boy, I can take care of myself”.

Ellen hummed in that way of hers that indicated she did not entirely agree, and it was really a small wonder – if he had taken in two boys who had shown up at his doorstep one day, half-wild, all but starved and with no idea what a normal family life looked like, he would have been a little bit overprotective too, at least he could easily imagine that.

“Look, Ellen, I promise it’s kosher. Well, he is. I made sure of that.”

It was a half-truth, if so much, but he doubted that Castiel had something like a police record because someone would have noticed his powers, and anyway, magical creatures did not really get arrested.

“I am glad to hear that” she finally said and Dean breathed a sigh of relief that did not last long.

“Bring him over for dinner, alright?”

Over for –

“I – I – “ he knew there was no way out of this. If he said No, she would think he had something to hid after all, especially because, in her view, someone who had probably been living rough would never say no to a hot meal. “Of course. I’ll ask Cas.”

It was not going to be enough to say No because he didn’t want to, and he knew it, but maybe he could come up with something.

“You do that. Love, you, Dean.”

He immaturely softened, as always when she signed off with that. She had said it from the moment they had arrived at her doorstep, and had never stopped. “Love you too, Ellen.”

He hung up. Alright, now he just had to explain it to Cas…

As expected, there were no dinner parties in the river, so he was somewhat confused what Ellen wanted from him, but Dean explained that she just wanted to make sure he was safe.

“But I would never harm you” he immediately said and he sighed.

“Look, Cas, of course you wouldn’t. I get that. You get that. She sort of gets it too, but she has to make sure. That’s what – well – that’s what being a family is all about.”

“Not in my experience.”

Oh man, did he have to look so sad while he said that, too?

“It will be fine” he tried. “You like my cooking, don’t you? Ellen’s is much better – “

“I doubt that is possible.”

He told himself that he wasn’t blushing scarlet, but didn’t think that was true.

[foundationbuilt]

⭐

send ⭐ for me to choose which muses i would like to explore <3

i sincerely apologise for the ramble but this is what it came to sjsjsj. i'll put it under a read more so the whole dash doesn't have to suffer a long ass post.

scott & allison, ugh these babies like that was scott's first love and he was a stupid teenage boy with his heart on his sleeve and he made so many mistakes but allison holds so much of his heart. always. even if they break up, or don't get back together, or are just friends now, or whatever. she's so so important to him.

scott & lydia, the best of buddies. like this girl could have been like him, bitten by the same wolf and would've been part of the same pack ( even if it wasn't a pack ) but she didn't turn. she had something else going on, and scott wants to help so much with that and he feels such a connection to her anyway. and later he'll never understand how he could have ever gotten through life without lydia because she is one of the most important people in his life. i also do like exploring the idea of scott and lydia romantically ?? like, interesting how that would come around, but mostly i like them being platonic bffs.

on a role reverse for us muns, i'd like to explore dean and sam winchester interacting with scott because hunters coming across a true alpha like scott !!! that would be interesting, especially considering what part of the timeline dean and sam are at.

klaus & hayley !!!! one of my otp's, whether that's romantic, platonic, familial or enemies. i love these two's dynamics so so much, like it honestly has so much of my heart no matter what is going on with them. i love getting into the gritty realities between them as well as exploring how much they have changed and grown and evolved together. also so much potential for canon divergence's !!!!

hayley & davina's friendship !!! like these girls know what you have to do to survive in new orleans and they just ... help each other out when they can. it's all they can do. I think there's just something so sweet about this and i love it. i'd love to see hayley and davina also being like, older, and sister-in-laws, and being like, ugh, mikaelson christmas.

clary & simon, parabatai! best friends! awkward boyfriend-girlfriend! give me them all, like these two are the sweetest ever and clary loves him so much, and she needs him. he's literally the other half of her soul and, ughhhhhh! i love this dynamic.

clary & jace, another one of my otp's !! like these two angel kids struggling so much in this world with all these lies and pretences and false identifies they had been made to believe about themselves, finding each other amongst it all and finding themselves as well, and being together while doing that. as well as all the angst of course, because we can never get enough of that. but i'm good with angst and exploring that but also a happily ever after where they get to live the rest of their lives together. also would be interested in an au where the uprising didn't happen or happened later or whatever and clary and jace were both raised by valentine ... *side eye*.

jace & alec, parabatai boys!!!! that is jace's best bro, his soul, the first person who ever loved him and jace will never ever ever forget that. like alec is his soulmate and i will always scream about this dynamic. could also explore romantic jalec as well if you were interested in that.

jace & tessa, because herondale family feels !! i would absolutely adore building up a dynamic between jace and tessa like ....!!!!!!

percy & jason, these golden boys of their camps !! like there is so much potential there that's more than the macho falsity that didn't fit either percy or jason in canon that they were forced into. it is a dynamic i've explored in rp before and would absolutely love to do so again, there is so so so much potential. !!!

percy & annabeth, everything absolutely everything. like there's nothing i wouldn't write for these two.

percy & vienna, as soon as i read her about i thought of vienna helping percy control himself during a meltdown. like when he's creating a hurricane because of something that's went on and unable to control his emotions, vienna helped to control the weather even if only a little and it was enough to snap percy out of it and well, i don't know, but that's just what first came to my mind ... we could build on that.

peeta & katniss, again, everything, all the gritty details from the beginning to the end, i am so precious about these two, they hold my heart in so many ways. like they are so so damaged but aaaaaaaaaa !

RIGHT SO. i don't offically have rhode as a muse yet but i was talking with another mun about making her one tonight and then i saw kaia born in rhode island and it just ... felt like fate. rhode taking an interest in this one demigod ...

regulus & draco, like an au where regulus lives and he sees draco going down the exact same path that he did and he's like, no, stop, and that's his cousin's boy ( and he loves him, he loves narcissa, and he loves draco ) and he desperately doesn't want draco making the same mistakes !! ugh, that actually wretches my heart so much to think of regulus trying so hard to protect draco.

there are more but ... yes, i think i rambled enough jsjsjsjsjsjsj.

[bustyasianbeautiespod]

Episode 114 Transcript: Deus Ex Machina That Doesn’t Work

[intro guitar music]

G: Hello, it's Grey.

C: Hello, it's Crystal.

G: And this is Busty Asian Beauties, a Supernatural commentary podcast where I, someone who has seen this show many times...

C: And I, someone who only knows the show through social media, discuss every single episode of Supernatural from start to finish. Also, we are both Asian.

G: Well, today, we will be discussing Season 6, Episode 10: "Caged Heat," written by- It says here, “teleplay by Brett Matthews, story by Brett Matthews and Jenny Klein, directed by Robert Singer.” This is a Singer episode. There's one zoom, and I did notice it, and I was like, "Ah! A zoom!"

C: Wait, when was it?

G: I think it was when they're about to go meet Meg, right after they talk to Samuel, in the scene where Samuel is like, "[Samuel voice] I'm gonna bring Mary back, [C laughs] and you cannot stop me." they zoom out of Sam and Dean's face. Lovely!

C: Okay. It's a reverse Robert Singer zoom?

G: Oh, no, no, no! They zoom in, and then they head out of the barn or wherever they are.

C: I see, I understand.

G: And I recognized Robert Singer completely. It was so subtle, too. It was like he was trying to hide who he is, [C laughs] but I will know him wherever he goes, whatever he does.

C: Yeah. Brett Matthews previously did “Live Free or Twihard,” which we did not like. [G: Yeah.] Jenny Klein previously did "The Curious Case of Dean Winchester," which we had mixed feelings on?

G: Yeah, this was the one with the Irish guy, right? [C: Yeah.] Loved him. So yeah, love it completely.

C: Oh, yeah, Sampatrick rights.

G: [laughing] I mean, to be fair, hindsight produces some really good memories. Because when you said "Live Free or Twihard," and you were like, "We didn't like," I was like, "Is that true?" [both laugh] But I was like, "Wasn't that the one where Dean gets turned into a vampire? That's such a fun concept!" And it is such a fun concept.

C: It is a fun concept. Except the rest of the concepts were teenage sex slaves that they made fun of the whole time.

G: Yeah. [laughs] What did you know about this episode before going in?

C: I knew that this was the episode with the Megstiel kiss, which she does it in order to get his angel blade, and that sometime in this episode, Dean has a line for Cas where he's like, "I would have given you an hour to fuck Meg before I killed her." Great. Love it. I knew that there would be some conflict between Crowley and Meg over some sort of political issue in Hell. I didn't know that it was in this episode, but obviously, I've seen "Will you, boy?" [laughs]

G: Of course! That's what makes them good in bed, etc.

C: Literally. Literally. And also, the pizza man. The thing. [G: Yeah.] The beginning of the pizza man- not cold open. The "Then" sequence? [G laughs] The pizza man "Then" sequence. It's here.

G: Literally! So many seasons from now. That's in Season 15, I'm pretty sure. Is that true?

C: It's gotta be 8, right? No?

G: No, that's like, in Season 15!

C: Wait. What was the relevance of the pizza man [laughing] in Season 15?

G: [laughs] Literally nothing! [laughs] It literally is just a scene where Cas goes, "If the pizza truly loved the babysitter," [both laughing] and then, like, what's her name? Ruby opening the door-

C: [laughing] And then a bunch of scenes of Dean specifically eating pizza. [both laughing] [G: The Destiel warriors-] I just feel like if it was Season 15 they would have thrown in a scene of Cas babysitting Nora's baby [both laugh] [G: No, yeah.] as well to really drive it home.

G: Well, we will see you when this cold open happens, and it will surprise us both. [both laughing] It's one of those things that like, if I told someone who is not into Supernatural, they'd be like, "I think you're like looking too much into things." But like, it really did happen on my screen.

C: Yeah, it did.

G: Obviously, you've seen the boob contraption.

C: Yeah, I mean, they did it to Jo and Ruby before. Classic.

G: Yeah. Obviously, you've seen it before. Is that true? Like, you know it happens to Meg.

C: I think I did, but I just didn't really remember it. I just assume every hot woman on Supernatural gets to be in the boobstrap table.

G: Who is evil, yeah.

C: Jo's not evil.

G: Who? Oh, yeah!

C: Didn't they do it to Jo?

G: Is that true?

C: Did they not?

G: I don't know. It's been years since we did that episode, probably. [laughs]

C: True. Whatever it was, it's been years.

G: It's been years, it's been so long.

C: I wonder if there's a page for boobstrap table Supernatural. I'm not getting anything.

G: Yeah. Before we start, I do want to say, I don't like this episode, and Crystal does.

C: Yeah, I do.

G: So that's gonna be interesting. Why do you like it? What are the reasons why?

C: I think that after 6.09, it is a very interesting look into the ways that Sam, being soulless, actually does make him a good hunter, [G: Yeah.] especially in the context of these demons that he seems to relate to in a way and seem to relate to him back. I like Meg, unlike you, and I think the reasons that you dislike her are very good. [G laughs] However, I do wuv her still, so it was good to see her. It was good to see Cas. I liked seeing his silly little face. And yeah, I don't know. It just had two characters that I like, and I thought that there were interesting themes and motifs going on.

G: Yeah. Well, the reasons why I didn't like this episode is that I think I am at a point where I'm just so tired of plot episodes. I want a case episode. And with episodes like this, it feels like there's no like room to breathe, you know? Because there's so many things happening. Actually, this one, there's not a lot that happened. It's all just bullshit.

C: It's one mission.

G: It still feels so rushed and so I don't know, like, "Okay, who give a shit?" [laughs] And I understand that these are essential episodes. We need episodes like this to keep the show plot going, but who give a shit, you know?

C: Doesn't it feel rushed because Cas and Crowley are kind of engineering things behind the scenes anyway?

G: Yeah.

C: It feels off because we revisit this in 6.20, and we're like, "Oh my god! Those weren't even his bones!"

G: Yeah, I suppose so. I mean, I don't know. I just- I hate everyone. I hate Samuel. [C: Yeah.] I hate Dean. I hate Meg. I hate Castiel in this episode. [C: Gasp.] I hate Crowley in this episode. I mean, actually, Crowley and Sam are fine. Samstiel real. No, that's not- Crowstiel?

C: Cram rights.

G: Cram! How can I forget? How dare I? Well, Cram rights. Sam and Crowley are completely fine this episode. Love Sam. Love Sam! Love Sam! Everyone was so fucking annoying, and-

C: Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention. Of course I know that he fucking chewed through his arm to make a demon trap.

G: Yeah, love that. And then the little grin. Love it! Anyway, let's start with our episode. We start with Crowley tied up to a chair, beaten up bloody. But then, obviously, this is not Crowley. This is a shapeshifter, and the alpha shapeshifter that has turned into Crowley. And the real Crowley is going about torturing this guy. And every time that Crowley tortures now, I do always remember when you said, "They always tout him as like, 'He's good at making deals,' etc, and the only deal he makes is like, 'I'm gonna kill you!'" [both laugh]

C: Yeah, yeah, exactly that.

G: And he's going here, "I'm gonna kill and torture you!" and that's the deal.

C: And then he does. He does both of those things.

G: Yeah, I mean, he keeps to his word. We gotta give him that. That's the entire groove of the conversation. Crowley's saying, "Get me to Purgatory. I know you know where it is. I know you can draw me a map," blah blah blah blah blah blah. And the alpha is like, "No, I don't. No, I don't." [C laughs] And then at some point, Crowley says that he has a whole nursery of all the baby shapeshifters, and then he holds up the phone [C: Baby monitor.] or the baby monitor, I think, [C: Yeah.] to make the alpha listen to the crying sounds. But then he says he'll kill them if you don't tell me. And the alpha goes, "Okay!" And then Crowley kills the guy. RIP. Rest in Purgatory.

C: Real. For real. It doesn't matter if you kill an alpha of a species? It's just whatever?

G: Yeah, like, literally. Because they portray these characters as super powerful with- I suppose it's only the vampire that they make it like they have a-

C: The alpha shapeshifter attacks them in- what? 6.02? And there's a whole, "You can't do it. You can't take them down." Yeah.

G: No, what I mean is the psychic connection with everyone, it's only the vampire that they show that about, right?

C: Right, that's true. So it's not like the alpha shapeshifter could call every shapeshifter over to help. [G: Yeah.] But why not?

G: And also, it implies the idea that if the alpha vampire, if he gets killed, it's like losing like a leader for real, [C: Right.] with an impact of losing that, versus the alpha shapeshifter, where it's like whatever. [laughs] Like, who give a shit?

C: Yeah. Was there nothing about like somebody sensing the father or whatever in 6.02 with the shapeshifters?

G: I don't recall, but I don't think so. [C: Okay.] You get a splash screen. We go to Sam and Dean.

C: God! I don't know. I did not like this opening scene. [G: Why?] The guy's just tied up with regular chains. We have whatever Supernatural's stupidass torture thing is. Crowley, at some point, pulls out the world's most boring looking knife, and he's like, [G: Yeah, and he has this whole speech.] "This is the most rare weapon ever, and it can hurt you for real!" Like, okay. Can it look cool at least? It just means that Crowley's entire operation is just he's telling Samuel to capture alphas, torture them, and then hand them over to him for more torture, which isn't even better than Samuel's torture. Is there literally nothing else you can do like? Maybe there's like a scientific fucking test you can do on like a skin sample to like, figure out the ash levels in Purgatory or whatever. I don't care. This is just boring. I don't care.

G: Yeah, it's obviously not working anymore, so like, are they really so fucking clueless about what to do? Zero ideas? Zero further moves to make?

C: Yeah, if torture doesn't work, I'll just torture some more? [G laughs]

G: Literally. And they built an entire compound out of it. It's a whole thing.

C: Yeah. And if the compound's meant to enact, I don't know, psychological torture as well, then I don't really see the point of killing the alpha shapeshifter right now. Killing him means there's literally no further leads that Crowley thinks that he can pursue with this character, and that just doesn't bode well, I think, for this whole plan. And I think it lowers the stakes or just makes it seem less doable, so we're less invested.

G: And it doesn't even feel like the shifter has been there for a long time from what we see. [C: Yeah.] So like, okay. [C: Yeah.] What Supernatural should be doing is better torture, [both laugh] is what we seem to be advocating.

C: Yeah, I think it is [laughs] that if Supernatural must have torture in it at the level that it does, and as the only solution it has, add a little nuance! Add a little flair! [both laugh] Whatever, dumb. And after he decapitates the alpha shapeshifter, he goes, "Oh, I kind of lost my head there." Who is that for, Crowley? Shut up! I don't like you very much. You're annoying.

G: It's for us!

C: Well, he doesn't know we're here.

G: Or does he?

C: Or does he? I'm the one who supposedly likes this episode. [both laugh] I do. Just not this scene.

-

C: Sam and Dean are pulling up to these two demons with a car, and they're bringing in a rugaru. Maybe the alpha rugaru. They want to know where Crowley is and why they can only interact with his henchmen. But you know, it just doesn't work. The demon calls them women in two different ways, and then leaves.

G: No, it's a whole extended bit. He's committed to this joke that like, "Oh, really? Well, maybe you stop being a girl." [C laughs] Like, what is going on?

C: Yeah, yeah. What is going on? I mean, Brett Matthews, the only other thing he's written has also had monsters being more misogynistic than we  usually see them to be. I feel like vampires weren't the level of misogyny that we saw them in “Live Free or Twihard,” so this could just be a continuation of him thinking what a cool, evil thing to say is?

G: It's also like- I also did get a little bit pissed off. Not pissed off, I just rolled my eyes in the scene where the demon is like, saying his magic line that is supposed to impose fear in Sam and Dean's heart or whatever. And then he  changes his eyes to the demon eyes, even though we already knew he was a demon.

C: No, literally!

G: And it's like so fucking corny, tired, and played out. And they played a sound effect of like, "Tuh-tuh!" [C laughs] Like, okay. [laughs] We get it. We don't care.

C: I remember that Christian was possessed by a demon and then you took him away or whatever. That was like, in 6.07, right? That's three episodes ago. If you cared that much, just put it in the then sequence, and then don't do it here.

So Sam and Dean go back to their place, and Dean's just super done with working for Crowley. He mentions that the only thing that's really changed is that now he "needs a daily rape shower," which I think is the start of, though there's also been hints earlier with Crowley saying that he's gonna torture the shapeshifter with a speculum - and I think the demon calling them a little bitch just then - where one of the like ongoing things throughout this episode is like a real, strong focus on the like, demons and sexual assault aspect of demonhood, where a lot of demons assert their power through sexual harassment, and like, I don't know. I think in the past, there was "demon possession is akin to-"

G: As an allegory, yeah.

C: Right. I feel like this episode, it's a little bit more the- I mean, here, it's more the other way around where it's like using rape as a metaphor for interacting with demons rather than using demons as a metaphor for experiencing rape, which I feel like was more how this started.

G: Yeah, yeah.

C: But yeah, I mean, I don't really have a fully-formed thought on that. I think it happens that metaphors end up being two ways sometimes, but I don't know. One of these things is real, and one of them isn't. But anyway, yeah. They get really hard into this thing right now and then yeah, later, I think it's more just rape and demon possession and demons are just two separate things, but rape is a tool that demons use in order to assert power and torture, and all that, which I think we sort of knew already as well. Sam's just like, "Well, we have to keep working for Crowley because we need my soul back." And Dean continues questioning that Sam even wants it. And then Sam suddenly stops replying, and Dean goes over to the other room, and Sam's been knocked out, and then a demon knocks Dean out.

G: Yeah, I do love the scene where Sam disappears. It's like, "Ooh, ominous!" Because a part of me was like, "Wow! He ran off that quick. Good for him!" [C laughs] And I went, "Oh, yeah, they're in the demon show where they get taken by demons. Alright."

-

C: Sam and Dean wake up, tied up to chairs, and Meg is there. She's also going much harder in the sexual harassment, sexual assault talk in this scene, but not in the direct behavior, because I feel like half the time we've seen her, she's straight up sexually assaulted Sam and Dean. But for here, they're clearly doing like a "bark more than her bite" thing where she's really going hard into this because she's nervous, and she's trying to assert some sort of power in the way that we usually see her doing it.

G: Yeah, which Sam points out.

C: Yeah. She's questioning them about where Crowley is, and clearly just upset and frustrated, and really, really needs this information. Or I don't know about "clearly." It's clear after Sam points it out. So yeah, I mean, she straddles Dean's lap, and she starts saying like, "I'll kill you if you don't tell me." But Sam starts laughing, and he says, "Can't you tell? Meg is so fucking furious. If she could kill you, she would have done it by now. She's clearly terrified. I think that she's running from Crowley because Crowley wants to hunt down all of the Lucifer loyalists now." And when Meg asks, "How would you know?" Sam says, "That's what I'd do." Love it! Love it.

G: Yes! Literally boy king of Hell.

C: Boy king of Hell as fuck.

G: He didn't take the job, but he's gonna complain about who the fuck is doing it. Good for him.

C: Exactly. Did we already talk about how, you know, one way of going to Hell and coming back wrong is becoming a demon, and soulless Sam is also a different iteration of that. How- I don't know. How different is a demon from a soulless person in terms of how the Supernatural writers expect them to act or how their minds work?

G: Well, Sam doesn't have any powers.

C: Right, and I guess he also doesn't have any feelings, whereas demons do.

G: Yeah. Meg is explicitly scared, so like, that's a feeling.

C: Right, but somehow, he still ends up at the same place with how Crowley thinks, at least.

G: I think that thought process is more of a- we're just supposed to not really think about it in a "They have the same mindset." [C: Okay, yeah.] That's not what it's supposed to tell us. What it's supposed to tell us is that Sam is willing to put himself in the situation of "Well, if I was doing that, what would I do?" which is like, a little bit of a morbid thought, you know? I feel like perhaps Sam Winchester, with a soul, would still end up with this conclusion if he thought about it, but it's the idea that he thought about it before, seemingly. [C: Uh-huh.] That is the one we're supposed to go like, "Oh, okay." Do you understand what I'm saying? Like, in the past, he-

C: I think so, but I don't think we're supposed to think he thought about this on the spot. I don't know.

G: I think he's like, in his pastime, going like, "What would I do if I was Crowley?" [laughs] And that's supposed to be the thing that bothers us a little bit or something. I don't know. I'm not bothered so like, I don't give a fuck.

C: Because he and Dean have been working for Crowley for a long time, you'd think that a basic part of strategy is for them to think, "If we were Crowley, what do we think we would do?"

G: They are working for Crowley at a different department. [laughs] [C: Yeah, okay.] So fuck knows what they know about the other departments of Hell.

C: No, that's fair. I think what is supposed to be off-putting is that Sam is so sure that he understands Crowley.

G: Yeah, I suppose maybe that, too, yeah. It is the willingness to- For what I was saying, it's the willingness to get to that level of understanding Crowley and what you're saying is like, the understanding itself. [C: Yeah.] Yeah, I think those are similar enough ideas to be able to-

C: Yeah, live together in harmony.

G: I do, I suppose, enjoy a little bit that- Meg says this later. Sam is finally the person that I think Meg wanted him to be.

C: Yeah, in Season 2.

G: And it's because he's soulless, which is like, kind of a slay. I mean, not a slay in that way, but like it's fun to think about. It's a fun thing to think about, and it does bring up the question you were asking earlier, how different is a demon from a soulless person? I have been- This episode brought up a lot of things about how souls work. Sam is different from his soul. A soul is not him. It's just a component, is, I think, what Supernatural is saying, finally. They will say it later with soulless Jack and stuff, but now, the entire conversation, it never is that Sam is down there, you know what I mean? The soul is a completely separate thing. Which just makes you wonder like, why not just put a different soul in him? [C laughing] Why not just put a different guy in there?

C: 'Cause then there'd be a person without a soul, I suppose. But yeah, none of the memories are associated with the soul. They're in Sam's mind. So yeah, why not just put a different soul in there?

G: Yeah. And I mean, it also makes me wonder, so what was- A soul is different from a consciousness, is what Supernatural is trying to say. Like, Sam obviously has a consciousness right now. He doesn't have a soul. So like, I don't know. They are typically together? It's just in special circumstances where they're apart? But that means that they are apart. They are different things, no matter what, if you can separate them in that way. [C: Yeah.] I don't know. It's like, I don't know what Supernatural really is trying to say with all of the soul bullshit. I don't know what this means or what it's supposed to imply.

C: From the last episode, it seemed like all that a soul did was, what? Make you more empathetic and care about being niceys? [laughs] [G: Yeah.] Like, I don't think that's right.

G: Like, what if the person has a soul but doesn't give a fuck about that anyway? Then what is the soul there for? You know what I mean? What is the soul there for?

C: Yeah. And Sam putting himself in Crowley's shoes for like figuring this out is a form of empathy. [G: Is empathy, yeah.] It's just that they've divided things into good empathy and bad empathy [G: It's not niceys.] in Supernatural.

G: Yeah, well, I don't know.

C: The Meg line that you mentioned later where she tells Sam, "Oh, you're missing your soul. I thought you just like, grew a pair," or whatever her exact phrasing was. I did enjoy that. Because I mean, I don't know. During this whole interaction here, I was wondering like, is she gonna know because she possessed him once? She's had a scene post-Season 2 where she tells him like, "I've been inside your sad little head, so like, I know and understand you," and I just feel like they haven't really done much of that with Meg and Sam since. [G: Yeah.] Right now, they are at a point where both of them basically have the same understanding of who Sam is, like who soulled Sam is. Like, she has his memories from when she was in his head. He has his memories from him currently being in his head. And she was very good at acting as him for a week or so, and he did that to Dean for a little while. They have done very similar things with Sam's body or just his whole vibe. But yeah, I don't know. There hasn't been a lot of that in this episode, and I don't think there will be later on.

G: That is an interesting idea, then. If a demon possesses someone, they're possessing their consciousness? But the person inside is also still conscious. [C: Yeah.] But they have access to the memories. So in Supernatural land, memories is different from consciousness is different from soul. [C: Mm-hm.] Wow! There's so many stuff in there!

C: It's a lot of stuff in there.

G: Lot of stuff.

C: Goop everywhere

G: As you said, there's a lot of sexual innuendo- not even innuendo, just straight up. When she's about slit Dean's throat or something, or she's acting like it while straddling his lap, she goes, "Let's end the foreplay. Either you please me or I please myself." and stuff like that. And then they're tied to a chair, so when Dean's like, "Oh, are you gonna untie us?" she goes like, "Well, don't pretend you don't enjoy it" and stuff like that. [C: Yeah.] And then there's also one guy who's really- They're like, "He's really mean-looking," but I don't actually get why.

C: Yeah, he's normal. [laughs]

G: He's normo-schnormo? I don't know. Like later, Sam kills this guy, and he tells everyone, "He was gonna jeopardize this whole thing because he's so intent on killing us, and you know it!" And I'm like, "I don't know it. I don't know it." Maybe they do, but I don't.

C: For real.

C: And I just am pointing that out because I want to contextualize why I don't like Meg. We've had Meg truly for a long time in comparison to any other character in the show, right?

C: I think she's maybe the oldest recurring character.

G: Yeah, aside from like, John Winchester. [laughs] Well, no, she's older than John Winchester. She was up first. [C: Yeah.] I mean, technically-

C: I mean, we see him in the pilot, briefly. [G laughs] But also like, John's dead. We haven't talked to him since Season 2.

G: Missouri is technically recurring, but I don't think it counts because they recur her to kill her.

C: Yeah, she's only here twice.

G: Yeah. But Meg is our oldest recurring character, and I have historically not liked her, and I have always like held out a little bit because- I don't know. Well, you like her. [C laughs] And also, many people do. And also I know that she's gonna have an interesting relationship with Cas. And so I was like, "Okay, let's hold out" because, you know, etc etc. I think I'm at a point where I'm like, I just don't like her, I think. I don't need to hold out. I don't like her. But you know what? I will hold out so I can have the deep satisfaction when she dies, and I'm like, "See? I never liked her all along." [laughs]

C: Wait, so you're gonna hold out on the- You're deciding not to decide to dislike her forever, so that when she dies you can go, "I always disliked her"?

G: Yes.

C: Shouldn't you just be deciding that you dislike her now and retroactively?

C: No no no. Because if I decide now that I don't like her and will never give her the benefit of the doubt, that's going to seep into further stuff. So right now, I'm still like, "Okay, let's give it a shot. Let's give it a shot." I mean, she's going to be a different character in Season 7 and Season 8. That's true. That's a true thing that will happen. She's going to be- she's going to have a different dynamic with everyone, and so I suppose I shall look forward to that, but also there is so much sour taste in my mouth with regards to her that maybe when we get there, I'll just be further annoyed. But let's see.

C: Let's see.

G: I understand that it's like a Supernatural thing, like it's a writer thing, and there are times when especially a female character is written in a way that I'm like, "Oh, I cannot find it in me to like-" or like, "It's so obvious that these are like, writing choices that are like, based on what the writer is and is being misogynistic versus someone actually trying to do a good job of building a character, you know, and portraying a person." With Meg, I find it difficult to do it. Like, "Whatever, this is just like a writer doing something fuck-all." I find it difficult to actually think about her as a character. And so that's my thing. [C: Yeah.] I don't know. You have talked about in the past about her motivations as like, someone who's loyal to Lucifer and how she changed allegiance, seemingly, in a way that's like, she's a person who needs that kind of thing to survive, she needs to have like something to worship. And like, you know, stuff like that. Okay, maybe that's interesting. And it is. It is interesting. It's just when she's actually on my screen, I find her completely unbearable. [C: Yeah.] So like, maybe Meg shall remain as someone that I think about outside of actually watching the show, [C laughs] because when I am watching the show, I'm just like, "Oh, come on."

C: Yeah, I mean, that makes sense.

After Sam realizes that Meg is running from Crowley, he decides that they should team up. He tells her that he and Dean will tell her where Crowley is, and she can go and kill him, but the Winchesters will come with her, and before she kills him, she needs to get him to give up Sam's soul. But he doesn't tell her what it is. [G: He doesn't say it, yeah.] He says, "Wring a little something out of him." Sam asks if Meg is up to the task, and she says that she apprenticed under Alastair in Hell just like Dean, so absolutely yes.

G: And the way she says it is she turns to Dean and is like, "What do you think?" And Dean goes, "Yeah, she can do it." Which is like, again, it's so, corny, tired, and played out because it is in no way influential to the episode. [laughs] We don't really see Meg do anything to Crowley.

C: She tortures Crowley.

G: How?

C: She does the thing where she like, clenches her fist and then he's falling on the ground choking and stuff, and she says the best torture is hands-off!

G: Yeah. And then he pushes her and then shoves the knife up.

C: That's when she's about to kill her. She did get him to give up the information that he was hiding about Sam's soul-

G: Oh, yeah! That's true!

C: - which is that he's been stringing them along for nothing, because he's not planning to give it back.

G: That's true. Good for her.

C: Yeah. [laughs]

-

G: Dean is mad at Sam now as they head up, because, like, "How dare you do that? She killed Ellen and Jo." And Sam's like, "Dean, you know what? I know that she's gonna trick us. So you know what? We'll trick her first." And then he says, "We're going to kill them the second that we're done with them." And by them, I do mean the whole group of demons, not they/them Meg. [C laughs] Dean is like, "Well, what if they kill us first?" And Sam says, "No!" 'Cause we're bringing our little angel on our shoulder, whatever.

C: Yeah, [laughing] who we also brought when Meg killed Ellen and Jo, and who was completely useless the entire episode because he got trapped in holy fire. That one. [G: Literally.] We're gonna be super fine with this plan that did not work last time.

G: Exactly. He's also going to get blasted off this episode, don't worry about it. [both laughing] They said, "We need a deus ex machina that doesn't work." [C laughs]

C: Yeah. It's 'cause God doesn't like him anymore. He's just an ex machina.

G: He's an ex deus ex machina. Well, now, we get a truly iconic, [C: So good.] truly iconic scene where Sam heads out, and he starts praying to Cas. But obviously, Cas DGAF. At first he's just saying, "We need you, pwease." He doesn't say "pwease," but imagine if he did. And then he he pivots and he goes, "Oh, the reason why I'm calling you is because there's this fucking gold box that the Nazis really liked in World War II, and then somebody opened it now, and it burned their face off. Anyway, we think it's the Ark of the Covenant." And then Cas is just there. He's there immediately. And he goes, "Where's the box?" And Sam goes, "Wow! You're so fucking stupid!"

C: And he does say that like that.

G: No, he goes, "I can't believe you fell for that. It's the plot of Raiders, idiot." Love it! That's actually worse than saying, "You're so fucking stupid." [C laughs] Yeah. Anyway, Cas is like, "Why did you call me? I have so many things! I'm so busy." And Sam says- he's really going at it. He's like, "I'm gonna bite your neck off." He goes like, "I don't care if you're losing. I don't care what you're fucking doing. You owe me, and so if I call you, you go down here." And then Cas is trying to explain himself. He's like, "You may not care, but like, believe me," blah blah blah. And Sam's like, "Do you think you're here to negotiate with me? If you can't help us, I will hunt you down and kill you." And Cas through this whole time has been mildly apologetic. [C laughs] He is intent on trying to explain to Sam why he can't come down. He just looks at Sam incredulously, and he takes a pause, and then he goes, "Will you... boy? How?" [C laughs] And Sam goes, "I don't know yet, but I will look into it until I find out, and I don't sleep."

C: That's what makes them good in bed.

G: Yeah, we're gonna reblog that again. We've already reblogged it before, I'm pretty sure. We have got to have.

C: Yeah, probably.

G: But when was it time?

C: I don't know. Soulfisting?

G: No, we didn't. I didn't. We didn't mention it until fisting. Can you believe it?

C: We mentioned it before that, I'm sure.

G: We have, definitely. I think we mentioned it- we probably mentioned it. I don't know. I'll reblog it. Anyway, Cas is like, "Okay, fine whatevs." And they show up, and Dean's like, "Wow, you actually showed up." [C laughs] And he's impressed by this. It does make me wonder how many times they have tried to call Cas that we don't know of, if they're like- Because we only saw- What have we seen of Cas and Dean. And Sam. [both laugh] What have we seen of Cas and Dean and Sam?

C: Ha, haha. In Season 6?

G: Yeah. I think the last time when was the last time we saw Castiel, was it literally the whiskey pouring scene? It must be after that.

C: Wasn't he there in "Family Matters" briefly, to meet with Samuel?

G: Oh, yeah, to check Sam's soul?

C: Yeah.

G: Okay, you're right, you're right. He was there the whole Sam soul debacle. Yeah, and that comes after the one with the pouring the wine or the- not wine. That's too gay. [C laughs] The whiskey. Also gay.

C: No, because that was in the "You Can't Handle the Truth" episode, which is the one right before.

G: Okay, got it. So we have established that Cas doesn't show up. But the last time Dean called him, seemingly, he showed up. And so how many times have they called?

C: Every time he shows up, they're always like, "Thank God. I've been calling you for five million months." so I think they just don't show us the times when they try and fail.

G: Yeah, that's fun. That's fun to think about. Yeah. And I do wonder about the line "You owe it to me" or something.

C: Well, yeah, it's just because Cas didn't answer him for the whole year.

G: But he's not answering again, so like, I don't know. So that's what Sam is talking about?

C: I think so.

G: Do you think Sam has any inkling that like, Cas left his fucking soul behind?

C: I don't think so, right? Because there's the beautiful, beautiful Sastiel scene of, "Cas. Did you leave my soul behind-" Oh, no, sorry. "Cas. Did you bring me back soulless... [both] on purpose?"

G: Ah, love it! I love it!

C: So good. That's what makes them good in bed. [laughs] [G: Literally.] Yeah, I do wish that- I know the point of the whole 6.20 reveal is that it's a big old twist, but like, I just I wish I knew the details of whatever the fuck was going on with Cas now, so I could analyze his motivations better because I only know half-things.

G: Yeah, I mean, as I've been saying since the beginning of this damn season, it's such a brave season to do. After your blowout season that was supposed to be the end of the show, you're like, "We're gonna go in. We're gonna tell the audience nothing." [laughs] Sam is soulless? You're not going to find out until later. Cas is doing fuck-all shit and is collaborating with Crowley? Literally twentieth episode of the season. It's like, they literally did not give a fuck. And I commend that.

C: I agree.

G: I have to put some respect to it.

C: I think it's good plot stuff, and Sera Gamble probably knew that she was going to be disliked as a showrunner, and she would have to prove herself, and she still stuck to her guns on this.

G: Yeah. And I commend that. It's also just fascinating because they decide if a season's gonna continue not that late in the game, you know? And so if it's like 16 episodes through the season, the audience is still like, "This kind of sucks, man! We don't know anything, and the plot doesn't make sense," that's going to hit your ratings, and it's going to hit your chances of renewal. [C: Yeah.] I wonder if it was like, they were already given Season 6 and 7. Yeah, I'm not actually particularly clear on the renewal situation of Supernatural. But I mean, I think we generally do know for a fact that they were in danger in Season 7. People say that. If I may, I don't like, allegedly, Season 6 and 7, and I have said this for a long time, like, I don't like it. I think I do like that this writer who has been here the entire time- She's been here since Season 1, right? [C: Yeah.] Sera Gamble? I respect-

C: She Andreaversed.

G: Yeah. Oh my god! Should I just keep on using the word "respect"? [both laugh] Well, I commend that she decided that "The show that I entered is Season 1 of Supernatural, and I'm going to try to get it back to at least something akin to the groundedness of those seasons." And like, obviously, it's difficult to go back given what happened in Season 5, but I like that they're trying to make it more here, you know? It's here. It's happening here. And it does feel a lot less like Sam and Dean are pawns the way they were in Season 4 and 5. So yeah, I don't like- [C laughs] I still think I don't particularly enjoy it. And I definitely think that if you're watching it live, it's difficult. It's a difficult watch. Watching it live, not knowing what will happen next. But I commend the bravery of doing a show that's potentially bad and kinda is. [C laughing] Like, good on you. It's just- What I'm trying to say is, I see why this is the direction that is being taken by this particular showrunner who has been here this whole time, and I understand, and I commend the vision.

C: Yeah, yeah, agreed.

G: When Dean is like, "Wow, can't believe you got him back," Sam is like, "Oh, you know. It's because we're besties." [C laughing] And are they? That's what makes them good in bed.

C: Funny as hell. And I assume Cas doesn't contradict him. Cas isn't like, "Noo, Dean! He said he was gonna kill meee!"

G: What if he's like, "No, Dean. Sam's actually threatening to kill me. We still have the most profound bond. Don't worry about it!" [C laughs]

C: Yeah, but I think he isn't telling Dean because if he says, "I only came down for the Ark of the Covenant," Dean's gonna be pissed at him, too, and he needs at least one person on his side when Sam tries to kill him.

G: Yeah, good for him. Quick thinking on his part. [C laughs] Well Cas says that Crowley is hidden from him because he tries to summon him. Not summon, he tries to location spell him. So they're like, "Okay, fine. We have to actually investigate for real." So they go to Samuel's place, the one that we saw Dean in in the past, or the one he tried to sneak in in in the past. [laughs] "In in in the past." But Samuel shows up and is like, "Well, what the hell are you guys doing here?" And they say their intention, but Samuel's like, "No, I'm not gonna join you. I'm gonna keep Crowley safe." And Dean is confused because "We're your grandkids." [C laughs] [C: Stupid as fuck.] And Samuel says the most interesting thing later, where he's like, "What the fuck is that even supposed to mean?"

C: Yeah. For real.

G: "Like, who are you, really?" And I'm glad someone is brave enough to ask this question. [C laughs] I still hate Samuel to my core, but I'm glad he asked it. And Sam says like, "No, please help us because it's the only way to get my soul back." But Samuel keeps denying it. And Dean asks Cas to leave! He's like, "Excuse yourself," and Cas does.

C: He was mid-battle. Did Cas just go- I don't know. It's so wild to me that Cas spends any time down here.

G: Cas literally just turned on invisibility. He's still there. He's just like, "To make them comfortable, I've just become invisible." [C: Real.] But Dean tells Samuel, "You owe us an explanation!" etc etc. I was supposed to quote the movie, but I forgot the actual lines. No. Oh, it's a Filipino movie. [laughs] There's a Filipino movie where they're breaking up, and the guy goes, "I deserve an explanation. I deserve an acceptable reason!" and it's a very famous thing to say here. Anyway, he says that, exactly word-for-word. [C: So true.] The reason he gives is like, "You know, we're your family, and it's something Sam really needs. If you don't want to help us, fine. But I deserve an explanation and an acceptable reason for why you don't want to." [C: Real.] Truly mind-boggling thing happens next.

C: Did you not expect this? I was like, "This is what it is."

G: No, it's just so absurd. [both laugh] It's so absurd! He takes a picture of Mary as we know her from the flashbacks, and he's like, "You know, Crowley promised that he's going to drag Mary from Heaven [both laughing] onto Earth. He's gonna give her back to me."

C: "And also, I don't give a fuck about my wife."

G: No, he has a wife. That's a crazy one. [C: Yeah.] Has a wife. What is this? What is this? [C laughs]

C: I mean, literally the exact thing I expected Supernatural to pull. Of course.

G: An absurd thing he says is, "You know how to live without her. I don't." She's your child! Did you not have a life?

C: You had a lot of years.

G: Did you not have a life prior to having her? It's crazy! [C: Yeah.] I understand losing a child, blah blah blah, [C laughs] but to make it seem like, "Oh, you only lost your mother! I lost my child!" is an insane thing to say to your grandkids.

C: Yeah, I guess the point is that they had time to move on and he never did, but like, phrase it otherwise.

G: Dean can say, "Well, you had time with her, at least. You had twenty years or whatever, and I had zero." No, he had four. Well, Sam should butt in and go, "And I had zero, so Dean should shut the fuck up."

C: Yeah. "But also, I don't care right now." [both laugh]

G: Literally. He's just channeling a memory that he had. But anyway, it's just- it's like, you know, a whole thing. And Dean tells Samuel off specifically about wanting to bring back someone dead because he says like, "It's never gonna work out. And it's never- It's a wrong thing to do. And you have to learn from our experiences," etc. And he goes like, "Oh, this is like our Achilles heel. I didn't know it ran in the family." Which, I don't know. Every time they try to refer to Samuel as their family, it's just so annoying. [C laughs] Like, okay. He's your grandfather. Okay. Who give a shit?

C: Yeah. He also said, "We will figure something else out," so like, what do you mean by that? [both laugh]

G: She's literally in Heaven.

C: You just said that you shouldn't bring people back from the dead, right? What's the else you're gonna figure out?

G: He could also just kill himself. [C laughs] He already knows that Heaven exists.

C: Yeah, he was vibing there, but they're in separate rooms, I suppose.

G: Yeah, he's like, "Yeah, I mean, the thing is, when I die, my soulmate is my wife, so we're just gonna be together, anyway. So might as well just have Mary who gets pulled down here." [C: For real.] He doesn't listen to Dean, and we just end with Dean telling him off. So they head out

-

G: We get the scene where Cas is watching pornography. [C laughs] You know, I'm so uncomfortable saying the word "porn," but I love to say the word pornography. It really flows out of the mouth.

C: It is a good word.

G: Yeah, it is a good word. Cas is watching pornography, and it's on the TV, and it's a fascinating scene. I was like- Okay. So the situation is, he's watching in front of the TV. He has his little head tilt going on. And can I also say before this, every time Cas walks in this episode, and he's beside Sam and Dean, he looks so ridiculous. Like, he does genuinely look like he hasn't been in a body for a quote-unquote "year" or whatever. And it's so fun. But also, I think Misha Collins just not- I don't know what's up with him, but it's fun to see like on your screen. But anyway-

C: Are we seeing the beginnings of his need for hip replacements?

G: Does he really? Did he have a lot of hip replacements?

C: I think he had some sort of hip-related thing. I don't know. I remember there being jokes going around, at least.

G: Oh, yeah, I remember the jokes, but I don't know if they're based on a reality.

Sam and Dean are off doing their homework, and Cas is sitting in front of the table. He tilts his head. He goes, "It's very complex. If the pizza man truly loves this babysitter, why does he keep slapping her rear." [both laugh]

C: Iconic!

G: And then he goes, "Perhaps he's done something wrong."

C: Oh, he's insane! I love him!

G: Yeah, I do love to see it. I think they really push it a little bit later. I'm just like, "Oh, whatever." But I think- and the way Dean responds is also so fascinating.

C: No, I know. What was that?

G: So Dean goes, "You're watching porn. Like, why?" And Cas is like, "I mean, it's on the TV. It's what's in there." And then Dean goes, "You don't watch porn in a room full of dudes, and you don't talk about it." And then later-

C: And he goes, "Room full of dudes." So like, if it was women, it would be fine? What are you saying? Just that it's gay?

G: I mean, there are, I think, instances where  people watch porn together before having sex. So like, I think he's thinking like, "We're not about to have sex, [C laughs] so you shouldn't be watching."

C: Is that real? Is that what's going on, really?

G: People watching porn as like, foreplay? Yeah!

C: No, no, no, I'm saying, is that what Dean means? Because I don't know. Don't people talk about watching porn with their friends and just jacking off together as well?

G: I think some people just also jack off together as well. I mean, have you seen the Beatles? Everyone has seen the Beatles.

C: I don't think I've seen the Beatles. They were a little dead before my time, or not performing, at least.

G: Well, you have seen them in your mind's eye, I'm sure.

C: Jacking off together. Yeah, of course. [G laughs]

G: Yeah. And yeah,"You don't talk about it." You don't talk about porn? You definitely talk about porn. I don't know. Do you? Do you? I don't know.

C: Do I?

G: No, no, no, just in general. Like, "you," general. [C: Yeah.] You do. [C laughs]

C: I think you, general, does as well, but Dean doesn't, I guess.

G: Yeah, he doesn't. And then a truly- So Samuel comes in. He knocks first, and then they open the door.

C: Cas also has a boner. That's important.

G: Oh, yeah, yeah, he looks down, and he's like, "Huh?" And Dean's like, "Well, now he's got a boner." I can't believe he's horny in a room full of dudes! And then Samuel knocks, and Dean, instead of turning off his fucking television goes to open the door first. [C laughs] And then Samuel's like, "Oh, so like you guys are just watching pornos now with angels?"

C: And then Sam turns it off.

G: Yeah, Sam goes over to turn it off, but before that, Cas goes, "We're not supposed to talk about it." [C laughs] It's just a fascinating, fascinating exchange.

C: Yeah, I don't even know what to say about it. It's just- Yeah.

G: I also don't know.

C: It's so important, but I don't know why or how. [both laugh] Library of Congress, for real. Library of Sexual Congress, etc etc.

G: Yeah, and I do find it fascinating. He doesn't seem to have been watching full-on penetrative sex.

C: Right. It's the spanking right now.

C: It was like foreplay spanking or something.

C: Well, he could be doing the speaking while fucking her, I suppose.

G: Also, I mean, the line "If the pizza man truly loves the babysitter."

C: No, no. What were they saying earlier that implies that?

G: Or were they just having sex, and Cas was like, "They must be in love!"

C: Be in real, true love! Aw! [G laughs] [G: Anyway, yeah.] The "perhaps she's done something wrong" is very interesting to me, too. Just that like, under true love, corporal punishment purely because you think someone's done something wrong and you want to hurt them is fine.

G: No, yeah.

C: Shoutout to "Point of No Return," I guess!

G: What is "Point of No Return"? [laughs]

C: Where he beats Dean up in the alley? [G laughs]

G: So true.

C: Should I not be making that comparison? It does seem a bit trivializing.

G: No, no. I just did not expect you to make a Destiel joke, I suppose. [C: Oh.] You're still in my mind a Destiel hater, so.

C: I mean, I am. But the fact that I hate it doesn't [G: Mean it's not true?] stop the fact that it's real. [laughs]

G: Literally. And this is one of the horrible things of life.

C: Yeah, there are canon ships that I don't like, and Destiel is basically a canon ship that I don't like,

G: Yeah. And you basically don't like it.

C: Yeah. [laughs]

G: And also the fact that they end it with that bit, with Cas going "We're not supposed to talk about it" is also a little bit wild. But he does talk about it later. He goes, "I learned that from the pizza man."

C: Well, it's because the room wasn't full of dudes.

G: Well, it was full of two dudes.

C: Yeah, but I guess it wasn't purely dudes there.

G: Yeah. At what ratio [C laughs] of dude to not-dude do you need to have?

C: I think it's the opposite of whether you use the male or female ta in Chinese. I think one woman's presence automatically un-gays it.

G: It's how in Spanish, their they is like ellos the moment you have one singular man in there, yeah.

C: Yeah, but the opposite, yeah.

G: Yeah. Samuel was like, "You know what? I had a change of heart. So this is what Mary would want." And then he shows them the map of where Crowley is. He still tells them, "I wish you wouldn't do this," but Sam invites him, and he goes, "Nuh-uh! I'm not suicidal," is what he says. And so they head out to meet Meg's team.

-

C: She's outside, and she greets Cas. She goes, "Remember me? I sure remember you, [both] Clarence." Agh!

G: I I would say, Meg, I commend and respect the nickname game. [C: Yeah.] It's very fun. I have not even actually seen It's a Wonderful Life.

C: Nor I.

G: Yeah. [laughs] Do you remember that description that was like- What's his name? What's the name of the guy in It's a Terrible Life?

C: It's a Terrible Life or It's a Wonderful Life?

G: It's a Wonderful Life. That one description that's like, "He's having such a horrible time. He's going to kill himself, [C laughing] and it's Christmas!" And that's so important.

C: God, that is so funny.

G: "George Bailey has so many problems he is thinking about ending it all. And it's Christmas!" [both laughing] Oh, I love it.

C: Cas immediately goes, "Why are we working with these abominations?" Hope for Sastiel and Megstiel here? And yeah, she just goes, "That's hot," etc. And they just talk for a bit and solidify the plan. Meg's gonna go here to kill Crowley. Sam and Dean are gonna go with her. And Sam says that she needs to give him back Ruby's demon knife, which I forgot that she has. And he uses it to kill that demon who apparently hated them so bad but nobody could tell. And Sam says that it's because he was gonna fuck up the mission because he hated them too much, and then he keeps the knife, and Meg doesn't like this, but just keeps on trucking.

So Dean's about to head out, and he's talking to Cas. And he says, "You know, Cas, you could help." Cas is so busy! Cas is so busy. Why is he even- Yeah, okay, whatever. I don't understand why he's here.

G: Dean's like, "Cas, you can go co-host in my podcast." [laughs]

C: Literally, literally. But yeah, he's not helping with packing.

G: Would Team Free Will be podcasters? An important question. Everyone seems to be a podcaster these days, allegedly. People say that a lot, so probably.

C: Sure. Why not? I mean, you know who would be podcasters? The Ghostfacers.

G: I mean, I assume they already are. [C: For real.] I assume they have a podcast that has been abandoned for seven years, perhaps.

C: I believe it. And Cas says, "I'm ambivalent about what we're attempting" because he thinks that if they take Sam's soul back, Sam will just straight up die because his soul's been-

G: No, he says, "Or worse."

C: Or worse, he won't die, but he'll be so so upset. He'll be thinking about ending it all, and it's Christmas! [both laugh] [G: Yeah.] So yeah, Sam's soul has been tortured by Michael and Lucifer for over a year, he could be in so horrible psychic pain, etc. And Dean's like, "But he could also be fine?" [G laughs] And Cas is like, "No, but sure, if you say so." And Dean's like, "Well, if he's not fine, then you fix him." And Cas is like, "I don't think I can." And Dean's just like, "I don't give a fuck about that. It's gonna happen, and you're gonna fix him, and we need his soul back because I hate him right now!" And Cas goes, "Of course. Or we fail, and Sam suffers horrifically." Pretty funny 'cause the whole time, Dean's being like a total asshole from like what he knows, but actually, [laughs] Cas is responsible for much of this. [G: Literally.] So yeah, he probably does feel bad for real, or should feel bad for real. But also, if he didn't do anything, both Sam's, I don't know, body and soul would be down there, so like, honestly, whatever. Cas did the best he could.

G: Also, it is hilarious the way they make you aware that Sam is listening in, where Dean heads off, and then there's an ominous figure in the back, and it slowly, slowly focuses on hi, and it's Sam doing a Kubrick stare. [C: So true.]

-

G: They head out, Meg only. Her other demons are not there anymore. Sam, Dean, and Cas, they're like walking through hallways and stuff, and eventually, they see somebody in a cage, I think.

C: Yeah, apparently it's the djinn from 6.01 who was the waitress who gave Dean her number? [G: Oh!] I didn't know that, but the transcript says so.

G: Oh, interesting! But anyway, they end up in a hallway when they suddenly hear some noise, and they realize that these are hellhounds, so they end up in a room to hide themselves, and they have a salt line and everything, but when they're inside they're like, "Okay, well, we're trapped in this room. What now?" And Meg goes like, "Okay, well, there's so many hellhounds, and they're all gonna kill us, so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna fucking get out of here." [C laughs] And so she tries to leave her body, and then it doesn't work. Just doesn't work, straight up. And I will admit, she does look so good in this scene. [C laughs] She looks amazing. And by amazing, I mean incredibly hot. [C: Yeah.] And the way the camera pans up in preparation for the smoke and then stops there, and it's just her with her mouth open. Well, whatever. [both laughing] Anyway. Apparently, it's like a Crowley spell or something. That's what they say, right?

C: Yeah. Cas is like, "I don't know why, but just for some reason, I feel like maybe Crowley - who I don't know - put a spell in this area so that demons can't leave their bodies. Weird!"

G: Sam takes the knife out and then he tells Meg, "You can see them, right? You have the knife." What happens? Meg tells him like, "No, you take the knife. I have my own thing." And what she does is she grabs Cas, then pushes him up against the wall, and then they start kissing, and she sneaks her hand into his coat, and then Cas flips her over and they kiss some more, and Sam and Dean are watching in the background, but mostly Dean. We only get Dean reaction. Is that true? Do we get a Sam reaction?

C: No, we get a shot.

G: We get one, yeah? Anyway, Meg's like, "Wow! What the hell? Guess again" or whatever. She doesn't say that. And Cas says, "I learned it from the pizza man."

C: Meg says that she feels "so clean." Also, when she was reaching into Cas's coat, she was taking his angel blade.

G: I said that.

C: You said that she put his her hand inside his coat, and then he flipped her over.

G: Oh, sorry. Well, yeah, it was to take the angel blade, and now she has it.

Dean's like, "Is that gonna work?" And she's like, "Let's find out, baby." And they head out.

C: Yeah. Megstiel kiss, scene of all time to me. But.

G: Do they have another kissing scene?

C: I don't think so. They had the almost in the episode where she does kill Ellen and Jo, and then they're maybe gonna fuck in Season 8, but then she dies! [G: RIP.] RIP. So yeah, I don't know. I think- Okay, with the "I learned that from the pizza man." And then, later on, Cas was like, "What do you mean you would have let me had an hour with her? For what?" [laughs] Like, fascinating things going on in Castiel sexuality studies right now. [G laughs]

G: Yeah. What what do you have to say about it?

C: I mean, okay. Like Meg, you know, historically weaponizes her sexuality in order to get what she wants. And this is the only case where she's seen somebody respond-

G: Someone take her seriously.

C: Yeah, well take her seriously and also respond in a way where they're both on equal footing about it, I guess. She doesn't end up like, "the winner." She in fact ends up feeling "clean." His angelness or whatever has permeated into her physically or whatever. And I don't know. I think that that is interesting, and it's the fact that it seemingly only works because Cas isn't into it? Or I don't even know what I mean by that. But like, I don't know. I feel like I think it's like Cas isn't engaging in it the way other characters have because of- I don't know what I mean. Do you know what I mean? He has a different relationship to sex than these other characters do. So he's responding to something that was sort of intended as a weaponized sexuality/maybe assault situation differently as a result, in a way where he has quote-unquote "won." Does that make sense?

G: Yeah, I suppose. I feel like there's more to it.

C: I think I think there is too, but I just don't know what it is.

G: I think it's the fact that this she has been using this to assert power, and in this moment, it's not that she's powerless, but she's taken aback, and that is like, something. Because the point of it is the predictability on her part-

C: Yeah, that it'll work how she expects it to, and it doesn't. Something surprising occurs.

G: And I think it works because Cas- you know, I don't think it works because Cas is an angel because we've met other angels, and I don't think it will work on them this way. So I guess it works because it's Cas, and they are really pushing with the "clueless about humanity" thing with him, which they don't push with other angels, definitely not.

C: Yeah, whatever. Shoutout to the post that says that Meg probably just thought that Cas was into guys starting from this episode, and that he made out with a real pizza man, so true.

-

C: They start heading further into the building, and then Cas gets fucking sigiled away by Samuel.

G: Who has betrayed them!

C: Dean's so upset that Samuel betrayed them. And then Crowley shows up and says, "Hiii. I'm gonna kill both of you." I do wonder how the Cas-Crowley team up works here. Was he gonna kill them for real? They probably would have died for real in the situations they were put in.

G: Do you wanna know? Do you wanna know for real or?

C: Oh, sure.

G: Crowley kind of spares Sam and Dean pretty much only by Cas's vehement, "No, you have to!" about it, but generally, he's like, "Oh, we should just kill them." [C: Real.] So like at this point, I think he was like, "Yeah, no, we're going to kill them for real" because Cas is not around to tell him off about it.

C: Sam and Dean get put in separate little jail cells where we saw other monsters being held by Crowley before. Meg kills all the hellhounds, so the angel blade does work, but then the demon possessing Christian gets her

G: Oh, that's Christian! You're right!

C: Yeah, so true. Samuel shows up to talk to Dean, and only Dean. [laughs]

G: He literally DGAF about Sam. That's his buddy!

C: Yeah, they were hunting together for a year! They seemed like they were pals.

G: I guess he was like, "Well, Sam's soulless. Who GAF?"

C: I guess. Not nice!

G: Not niceys.

C: And Dean's just like, "I hate you. You're a liar. You don't even put blood first, unlike my dad!" And Samuel says, "Mary is like my straight-up daughter, dude." [laughing] And then he says that Dean sold out Mary by- What? Not taking her down from the ceiling when he was four? [laughing]

G: No, literally- [laughing] That was also my first instinct. I was like, "Oh. What?" But I think what he's trying to say here is that "You traded Mary's soul for Sam," which is factally untrue, because Mary, I reiterate, is in Heaven, and Sam's soul, I reiterate, is in the cage with Lucifer. So.

C: [laughing] Real. Okay, that makes more sense. I was shocked at this one.

G: I was also. [both laughing] Yeah, "It was her or Sam, and you chose Sam." Crazy! I was actually trying to do the calculation in my head when this scene was happening on my screen. I was like, "Wait. So like, is he saying that when Dean grabs Sam out of the burning house, he should have grabbed Mary instead?" [C laughs] That's kind of an insane thing to say. But no, he's saying an even more insane thing to say.

C: No, I think the other thing's more insane. I think this one makes sense. You're going against Crowley because you care about getting Sam's soul back more than Mary coming back.

G: No, but "You sold out your own mother"? She doesn't even want to be here. Does she want to be here?

C: I don't know if- I mean, if he's heard about Heaven kind of sucking from Sam or Dean at this point-

G: He knows that.

C: - he could just assume. Yeah, he was there also.

Dean's like, "I can't believe you chose demon over your grandsons," and Samuel says, "I don't even know what Sam is. I'm not gonna protect him. And you? You're a stranger. No, really, tell me. What exactly are you supposed to be to me?" Kind of a giant slay and so correct.

G: Yeah. Well, because it's coming from someone who just said an completely unreasonable thing. It's like, "What?"

C: True. True. Not the best candidate for this line, I suppose.

G: I do love Dean's reply. Love it.

C: Do you? I think that he's a silly man.

G: I love that he says that "I'm the guy you never want to see again [C: So true.] because when I make it out of here, the next time you see me, I'll be there to kill you." He's really going at it. And Samuel- honestly, a little bit scared, goes like, "Don't think there's gonna be a next time." And Dean goes, "Whatever gets you through the night," which I did enjoy a little bit. A fun little threatening situation against your grandfather. Let's go.

C: Yeah, I do think that it's fun in terms of seeing how Dean has completely let go of the "we're your family idea" now. There's a few scenes that are intercut. Sam, Dean, and Meg are all being put through situations. [G: Yeah.] So Dean's situation is that he's taken to a room with two ghouls who are hungy. They're trying to eat him, and he's weaponless. Meanwhile, Sam is preparing for demons to come into his cell by biting into its arm at the wrist really really really hard until it bleeds, and then later, when two demons come into his room, they step in, they realize they can't move, and they realize that Sam Winchester is so tall that he was able to paint an entire devil's trap on the ceiling, using just his arm blood. [laughs] [G: Love it!] And at this, he grins, and you see the blood in his teeth, and it's so wonderful! And yeah, he manages to get into Dean's room and kill the ghouls.

Meanwhile, Meg's situation is that she is, of course, on the fucking boobstrap table. You may remember the boobstrap table from- I don't know. Every other time a woman got tortured in Supernatural? Did a woman ever get tortured normally in Supernatural? She could have just been chained up like the alpha shapeshifter in the beginning scene. The alpha shapeshifter should have been on the boobstrap table. Christian is torturing her with a knife. Meg is trying to stay stoic, and she's trying to make sex jokes at Christian to again, you know, assert control over the situation and all of that, but it is not working, especially because Christian is responding in turn. We learn that Meg's body is a girl from Cheboygan who moved to LA to be an actress, and I guess it's implied that while she was there, she was raped or went through some sort of similar violence. He's trying to- I don't. What is he even trying to get out of her? He says that Crowley "wants to know everything." Like what, though?

G: No, I don't actually know the purpose of this scene.

C: Yeah, nor I. Who knows? They just love the boobstrap table so much. She's being tortured, and then she starts laughing really hard, and then Dean stabs Christian, or his body, from behind, thus fully, 100%, for sure killing his cousin. [G laughing]

G: Love it!

C: "If Samuel's not my family, then neither is Christian"? What's the reasoning here?

G: I don't know. I mean, to be fair, I didn't recognize him as Christian. Number two, I don't understand the purpose of this scene like at all, the entirety of it.

C: Yeah. It existed, and it happened. Dean unties Meg, and they head out. There's a brief scene where Crowley is about to torture Brigitta, the djinn from earlier in the season, and we're supposed to feel bad for her, and I don't know why we're supposed to feel bad for her but not any of the other monsters like. Didn't she kill Dean's best friend who he just let go? His neighbor? Is it- she's a woman, and they need Crowley to look bad? Why this?

G: I mean, I also don't know. And it's also just so weird because Crowley has been, you know, up against alphas and stuff, and that's all we've been up against this whole time. [C: Right.] And then suddenly, the pivotal moment is him going, "Oh, so how about you tell me what your boss is up to?" [laughs] Like, what? What is this about?

C: I don't know. And he's also being menacing in like a sexual harassment-y way just in keeping with the themes and motifs of the episode, and also just I guess how he is as a character as well. But yeah, whatever. Somehow, this is a scene that exists. And then, while he's trying to menace her, a fire alarm goes off.

-

G: And so he heads out. It's, you know, Dean sounding the alarm. Meg tries to starts torturing him. Sam asks for what he wants. And this is the part where Sam's like, "I need my soul back," and Meg is like, "Oh! You lost it! What a cool situation!" And Crowley first starts going, "No." but then he goes, after some more pain, that he can't because he just can't do it. And he says, "I was lucky to get this much of you out." I love a cover-up. [C laughs] He says, "Michael-" they always point out that like it's both Lucifer and Michael, and at some point, somebody says that Sam is their only plaything in there. And I'm like, Adam is also literally there. [C laughs] [C: He is.] But okay. Crowley says, "And also, I don't know why you want it back. It's going to, you know, leave you a drooling mess" is what he says. Meg goes like, "Yeah, he's probably right." [both laugh] But Sam has given up, and Dean insists, but Sam has given up. And so now it's Meg's turn, and she wants to kill Crowley, so she heads into the Devil's Trap and then tries to stab Crowley, but then Crowley flicks her against a wall or something.

C: No, I think he just flips her.

G: And then he breaks the Devil's Trap with the knife by flicking it up against it. Very fun. And then Sam and Dean are now against the wall, and then this is all happening, he's trying to give a speech, but then Cas appears by the door, [C laughing] looing all heroic! And he's carrying a little bag, a little sack, even. And he's like, "Leave them alone." [C laughs] He's really putting on the drama, the drama of it all.

C: Obsessed with this guy.

G: And Crowley goes like, "Haven't seen you all season," which is very fun. Yeah, Cas says, like, "This is what I'm gonna do to you if you don't put the knife down." He lifts up a skull, and Crowley's like, "Oh, it's not possible that you have my bones." Cas is like, "No, you should have hidden them better."

C: Don't we literally know where they are? [laughs] Didn't we just go to where they were?

G: No, Crowley got them, put them in a bag, and then hid them.

C: Okay, wait. So when Sam and Dean were- Like, after "Weekend at Bobby's," he took the bones out?

G: That episode ends with Crowley taking the bones. [C: Oh, okay.] Anyway, there is this very banger scene where Cas goes like, "So can you restore Sam's soul or not?" And Crowley goes, "No, I can't." And Cas, with no hesitation, incinerates quote-unquote "Crowley's bones."

C: [laughs] He's so funny.

G: Yeah. And Meg also disappears instantly. And this is when Dean goes, "Oh, she's smart! Well, I would have given you an hour with her before I killed her." And Cas is like, "Why? Why would I want that?"

C: Yeah. Well, first, extremely gross sentence from Dean. Secondly, love Castiel sexuality studies.

-

C: They're outside of the prison, and Dean's like, "Cas, you're so cool! Thank you! And if there's anything we can do to help you, now that you helped me, I actually care about you for a little while until I'm mad at you again for not helping me!" [G: Yeah.] And Cas says, "There's nothing you can do to help me. I wish circumstances were different. Much of the time, I'd rather be here." Heaven must suck! [laughs] [G: Literally.] It must be so bad. I don't know. He's being very sad and gay in that line, though. It's sweet.

G: He has a very sad, forlorn face. He looks up longingly. It's a whole thing.

C: Yeah. And Dean's just like, "Cas, no, it's okay. I get it! You're going through soo much, and you're soo brave and soo strong. [G laughs] And we're your breasties!" [both laugh]

G: No, literally.

C: He says all of that, exactly like that, and Cas tells Sam that "We'll find another way." Incredibly funny. [G: Yeah.] Yeah. And then Sam just says, "I hate you! I hate you! I hate you! I don't care! If you actually wanted to help, you would go back and kill every single monster in Crowley's prison." And Cas goes, "Okay." And then he does?

G: And then he disappears!

C: Yeah. He disappears to go there, to do it, I assume.

G: Yeah, no, I think what I understand here is he was like, "I'm gonna help you, Sam." And Sam's like, "You know how you can help? This way." And he's like, "Okay, nevermind." And then he leaves. And that's important as well.

C: Oh! I-

G: No, I'm just joking. Obviously, he went there and slayed the monsters.

C: Okay, yeah. Sorry to all of those people in that prison. Did he even, though? Like, did he go over, Crowley was there, and he was like, "Hi, good job on the community theater, Cas!" And Cas goes, "Oh my god, thanks! You really think I did a good job?"

G: No, definitely, that happened.

C: "Sam told me to kill all these monsters that you're torturing," and Crowley's like, "Well, can you not?" And Cas is like, "Yeah! Of course I wouldn't do that to you!" And then he left?

G: Yeah, exactly. That's exactly what happened.

C: Well, good for them. And Dean's like, "Hey, whatever, you know, Sam? Buck up. We'll get your soul!" And Sam says, "No, I don't want it! Everyone says it's gonna kill me, so I don't want it!" And Dean's very, very upset, and he goes, "You don't even know what you're saying." And Sam goes, "No, I'm saying something you don't like." Slay! He's like, "You care. A lot. But I think I'm better off without it, maybe." [G: Literally.] And Dean goes, "You don't know how wrong you are!" And then Sam starts walking away, and Dean yells after him.

G: It is hilarious to me that this does end with a walk away. [C: Yeah.] And the shot is hilarious, too. It's like Sam walking away, and then half of the frame is like, Dean behind him going, "Sam!" [both laugh] It's kind of important.

C: Pretty important. Yeah. Well, that was the episode. What do we think?

G: Don't like it! Boring, corny, tired, played out, etc.

C: Yeah, if you say so. I think it had its strengths. It had its weaknesses. I had fun for a lot of it.

G: Best Line/Worst Line. [C: Ooh.] I forgot we did this

C: That we do Best Line/Worst Line in general? I mean, the "Will you, boy?" scene is iconic. I don't know if it's my best line, but it is iconic.

G: I would say my best line is- I don't know, actually. I have no idea. I suppose I really did like that, "Will you, boy? How?" scene, but Sam's lines. I like that he has a- that "I don't give a fuck that you're an angel" vibe that he has going is so fun. So I suppose I choose the line- Wait, I'm gonna look it up. "I'm sorry. Do you think we're here to talk this out?" [both laugh] Love that! [C: Love it.] I love that. He was like, "I came here for a purpose. You and I are not gonna discuss it. You're just gonna do it." And that's what makes them good in bed.

C: So true. I think I also like when Sam goes, "It's what I would have done." about Crowley hunting down Lucifer loyalists.

G: What's your worst line? What is a Samuel line that I can assign worst line? [C laughs] I think, honestly, the Samuel line where he goes, "You know how to live without her. I don't." is crazy. I'm gonna choose that as my worst line.

C: Yeah, I think Samuel's whole "You sold out Mary's soul for Sam's" thing was also a silly, stupid thing. Oh, we didn't even mention that when Meg was gonna kill Crowley, she said, "This is for Lucifer, you pompous little-" and then Crowley beats her up. [G: Aw, yeah.] Whatever. It's not that important. It's important to me!

Alright, spread those sheets. I think misogyny exists within the world of the boobstrap table.

G: Yes, it does.

C: Why was it happening? What was it for?

G: I would say, actually, the misogyny, I would place it high because of the fundamental characterization of Meg. [C: Mm-hm.] Also- you know what? This is not about the misogyny, racism, homophobia, but like-

C: Okay, is it about the heterosexual or the nonbinary?

G: I mean, yeah, it is, definitely. But it's just, I do think there is also so much incompetence in the writing of Samuel. It's such an incompetent way to have this character be. When he whipped out Mary, the Mary photo, I was kind of like, "Wow! What an absurd thing to do," but also, as you said you could see it from a mile away. Because what else does this character have? Literally nothing. [C: Yeah.] Nothing. And it's just, you know, it's like, I'm like, "Oh, yeah, they also didn't write him well," so we can add that to nothing [C: So true.] 'cause it's not misogynistic, racist, or homophobic.

C: Yeah. So when you say high, are you going like, 3 [G: Yes.] or higher? 3. 3 sounds right to me. Racism, we did have a few Black demons in this episode, I don't know if- was there? I feel like they're- yeah. I don't know. The one who calls them a little bitch at the beginning is Black, but I don't if that really counts inherently as anything.

G: I don't personally think so.

C: Yeah, I don't personally think so. Was there anything else? Not that I recall.

G: Not really, not particularly.

C: Yeah.

G: Homophobia. Dude, you can't watch porn in a room [both] full of dudes. I don't think that's homophobic. I think that's heterophobic. [C laughs]

C: Is it?

G: [laughs] Yeah! [C: So true.] The only reason why you would not watch porn with your straight friends is because of heterophobia.

C: Yeah, okay, I don't know, something's going on with Cas sexuality studies this episode.

G: Something is going on, but I don't think it's homophobia.

C: Yeah, I think we're supposed to laugh at him being clueless about how men are supposed to be. [G: Mm.] But yeah, I don't know. Let's just zero it, I suppose.

G: Yeah.

C: And when the pizza man montage happens, we'll give that episode negative ten homophobia.

G: No, that was fighting for Grey rights. [C: Yeah.] And I did say "gay" like "Grey."

C: Yeah. It was. I am that Db. When you say "I am that Db," is that Dean Binchester? Decibels? What's the Db? Actually, also, what does IMDb stand for?

G: International movie database.

C: That is probably true.

G: No, let's look it up.

C: It's internet movie database. You almost got it.

G: Yeah. 6.10 is me. I'm even. So this is, I would assume, a beloved episode in the stats thing because it's revealing stuff and doing things, and Meg is here, which is a recurring character, and Crowley and Cas are both here, and also, we have cemented the Samuel falling out, so the next time we see him, we're gonna kill him, which is important. [C laughs]

C: I don't think Dean actually does that, does he?

G: No, I don't think so. [both laugh] But we have established that we this is not a guy that we have have to, you know, put in any effort into liking. I would give this an 8.4.

C: Okay. You did all the talk about how it's rated highly, and then you only gave it 0.1 above "Clap Your Hands If You Believe"?

G: Yeah, I don't believe that it's that highly rated. Maybe it is. It's your chance, Crystal. You're lagging behind.

C: Ah! Whatever. 8.3. I hate my life. No, wait! No, whatever. Let's just do it. Okay.

G: You're not lagging behind, are you?

C: Yes, I am.

G: Oh, you are! By not that much. That's impressive.

C: What. What's the answer? I guessed 8.3, and I'm wrong, and I'm stupid.

G: Yeah! It's 8.5! [C groans] All of the photos are of Meg, and that's kind of important. [laughs]

C: Yeah, I understand this.

G: This one says, "Cas is at the top of his comedic game." Is he?

C: But is he?

G: This one says it helps focus the season because Season 6 is so " wildly uneven" and it's a "structural mess." And so this one is like, a very focused episode. This is so scary! I was like, "Oh my god! Did they know?" Because "One of the outstanding episodes of Season 6. Angels and demons working together, oh my!" And I was like, "Oh my god, they're like- this is like-"

C: They were talking about Meg.

G: Yeah, "Did we not watch like a Crowley and Cas scene at the end that was so important, and we missed it completely?" But no, it's about Meg.

Well, that’s it for this episode of Busty Asian Beauties. Next week, we will be discussing Season 6, Episode 11: "Appointment in Samarra." Leave us a rating or a review wherever you get your podcasts.

C: Someone in the reviews is asking why soulless Sam wouldn't be going after demon blood to drink it.

G: That's an interesting question. I suppose there is an aspect of the dependence that is emotional.

C: Yeah, maybe. Or like, now that he's Mr. Logic And Reason, he feels that it's actually not in his best interest?

G: Yeah. [C: Yeah.] I mean, the thing is, he does get powers from it, for real. [C: Yeah, yeah.] Or is that true?

C: It's true. He did get powers for real from the demon blood, yeah.

G: Yeah. But also now, he doesn't-

C: Except for that "You never needed the feather to fly, Dumbo" line, which I don't understand.

G: Yeah, but in Season 5, he still had to drink it, so who knows?

C: Yeah. And he used it to torture Alastair, right? And then kill him? So like, if they're- yeah, yeah. I don't know. Yeah, whatever the objections to drinking demon blood are are not within the soul. Or they are within the soul, but then there's other ones- the soul has reasons for and against, and without the soul, Sam has neither. [G: Yeah.] Yeah, okay. Well, follow us on social media! We are on Tumblr at bustyasianbeautiespod.tumblr.com. Our official tag is #BABPod, B-A-B-POD. Thanks to everyone who's donated to our Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/bustyasianbeautiespod, which is where our outtakes live, and check out our merch at babpod.redbubble.com.

G: You can email us any feedback, comments, or inquiries at bustyasianbeautiespod@gmail.com. See you guys next time! [both] Bye!

[guitar music]

[b1-d1s4st3r-z0n3]

Another Writing Example TvT //SLIGHT NSFW//

Aris recoiled slightly when Gabriel's hand wrapped around his forearm but his attention was mainly focused on the three strange men in the apartment. The archangel's hand on him kept him in place like an anchor, despite his desire to follow Rem and the other angel as they moved down the hallway towards Remiel's bedroom. His attention turned to the two humans in the room, and, given his agreement not to kill them yet, his release was granted, his gaze falling to the taller of the men. A malevolent glee shone in his eyes as he took a step forward and Sam took a step back, they continued like this, each move the nymph made mirrored in reverse by the human until they were playing a true game of cat and mouse. Sam's feet nearly slipped out from under him as he rounded the couch and the nymph jumped over the back of it, he was just barely staying out of the huge creature's reach and quickly running out of steam. The sharp corner around the kitchen island slowed him down even more and the feeling of fingers against his back made his heart pound even faster in his chest. A huge predatory grin spread across Aris' face as his lean muscles propelled his body towards the scrambling man in front of him. His fingers brushed across the back of Sam's coat and a low growl rumbled from within his chest as he lunged forward, tackling Sam to the ground. The loud smack of the human's chest against the floor made Dean cringe as his brother's face was pressed against the grain of the wooden floor. Aris poised above Sam's rigid form, using his calves to hold the backs of his thighs down, rendering his legs immobile. His left hand fell in a tight grasp on the muscled bicep below him, sure to leave bruises later, leaving his right hand twisting into the other's longer hair, wrenching his face backwards off the floor. Sam screwed his eyes shut as hot breath ghosted over his ear and the silky tone of the nymph fell from his lips just above a whisper, "You thought you could run, pontikáki. Thélo na se choríso gia aftó." (Little mouse, I aut to tear you apart for that.) Tears pricked at the corners of Sam's eyes as adrenaline coursed through his veins and blood rushed below his belt. He couldn't tell what was more humiliating, what the man above him was doing or the fact that in some way he was enjoying it. He silently willed the erection and the crimson flush to go away as he finally opened his eyes and was immediately met by the uncomfortable expression of his brother. He mouthed 'help' but only got a shrug and head shake in response, the reappearance of their accompanying angel and his demand that the nymph release him couldn't have come soon enough; though even after Aris' weight was relieved he stayed on the ground, too embarrassed to immediately return to his feet. Aris complied with Castiel's demand, although begrudgingly, as he released his new play thing and moved to stand behind Gabriel, placing his hands on the archangel's shoulders. Dean quickly crossed the room the moment Aris began moving towards him and stood between his brother's limp form on the floor and his angelic companion

[foundationbuilt]

NOW THERE WAS MANY THINGS DEAN WOULD TOLERATE FOR A HOT CHICK , driving Baby was not one of them. ❝ Nice try , Miss Sunshine , ❞ he said as he followed her out into the car park. He gave Baby a loving pat on the way around to the driver's side , smoothing over the black polish of her beloved hood. ❝ You're the only one I drool over, ain't that right , Baby ? ❞

Before he got in , he pulled his phone out of his pocket and sent Sam a quick text , smirk sliding onto his face as he hopped into the seat beside her and started the engine. This was what Sam got for backing out of the front line of this hunt , Mr College Boy preferring to stay with his books than the people.

❝ So , what you thinkin' for course of action ? We doin' the seduce and corner ? ❞ He glanced over at Sonny as he reversed , then focused on the side mirror to ensure there was no obstacles. ❝ Needa find out whose more her type. Usually , I'd say me , I'm everybody's type , buuuuut ... ❞ He let the silence speak for itself , tossing her a side grin without actually looking. It wasn't true , of course , and he wasn't nearly arrogant enough to think so, but he was enjoying the banter.

hearing  his  question,  sonny  looked  at  him  with  a  raised  brow.  almost  wanting  to  laugh  again.  this  probably  would  go  a  lot  quicker  if  sam  was  joining  them  to  knock  some  sense  into  his  older  brother.  maybe.  but  alas,  this  is  how  it  was  going  to  go.  "mhm,  nice  try.  we  got  a  job  to  do."

grabbing  her  little  purse,  she  made  sure  all  the  necesities  were  inside.  these  stupid  little  purses  could  rarely  fit  anything,  but  at  least  she  had  the  important  necessities  to  take  down  the  witch.  "yeah,  got  the  ritual."  she  nodded  as  she  pulled  the  little  piece  of  paper  out  of  the  bag  then  back  in.  and  in  case  they  even  lose  it,  sonny  took  the  liberty  to  memorize  it  because  something  always  tends  to  happen.  "alright,  let's  go  kick  some  witch's  ass."  grabbing  their  motel  key,  sonny  was  already  out  the  door  ahead  of  him  heading  towards  baby,  "and  you  better  not  be  standing  there  drooling.  otherwise,  i'm  driving."

[zmediaoutlet]

happy wincest wednesday and happy 2023! reverse uno: what are your favorite ways for john to find out dean and sam are fucking in a universe where dean and john are ALSO fucking?

woooooo wincest wednesday uno games and everyone's a winner --

Except John, lol.

You know, all my wincest fic and all my Dean/John fic and all the Full House of Wincest I've done, and somehow I don't think I've ever written that scenario? How tf did that happen?

Part of it may be that I haaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAATE fics where John's even vaguely a shipper on deck -- even where he's like 'ah, Sam and Dean are too obsessed with each other but That's For The Best bc Thin Hunting-Related Justification' just never vibe quite right with me. I have very narrow parentheses in which I find John believable. (What a surprise, a hard canon stance from ol' z.)

But -- a John who's been fucking Dean doesn't have too much of a leg to stand on, does he. Except: he does, of course he does, he's the god-patriarch and his word goes. It depends, of course, on the type of Dean/John that's been going on, but I'll go with my version because it's mine and I like it best, haha: a largely unspoken helpmeet scenario, where it's just part of the overarching need Dean has for his dad's love and attention and calm and happiness, and where John knows that he's using Dean and knows that even if Dean loves it he's still ruining his son and, this is key, John chooses to keep doing it anyway because that's who John is, as a person. Dean the extension of his arm and the step under his boot and something beloved but also something useful and ignorable until it is time to use it. Not size-72 font obviously awful abusive but -- well. Canon levels of abuse, let's go with that.

SO given that: let's call it a wincest scenario where Sam's in his mid-late teens and wants to take up with Dean. Did he know about D/John, or suspect? My favorite version of weecest + dadcest is actually for Sam to be kind of oblivious about it, as he was oblivious to a lot of key things in his teens (as you gestured to a little in your answer) -- he wants Dean and his attention and his love but he's also a very strong-willed teenager and so he also just wants to get his rocks off and knows that Dean's willing, whenever they crack past that barrier. And Dean, already with that door blown open inside himself, can't help it -- because after all he knows he's good at this, and he knows that it does make people closer, and he loves Sam and wants Sam to be calm and happy too, and isn't it just -- easier? He'll leave John on a hunt well-drained and focused and come home to Sam all bitchy and missing him and saying stuff like he shouldn't make you hunt, you should be in school, and Dean sighs and he could argue but he could also thumb Sam's hip, and Sam'd shut up all big-eyed and hopeful and going, oh, can we -- and Dean can say something like, yeah, and missed you, Sammy, which is only true, after all. And it's good, and when Sam's snoring on the fold out couch Dean can shower and carefully thumb two loads out of himself and then call John and say how's the job, Dad? and not really -- think about it. It's just taking care of things, like he always does.

SO, given that: it's easy to have John walk in on them -- a hunt finished early, they're wrapped up in each other; it's easy to have a demon tell him, and he doesn't believe it but then he's been hearing a lot of stuff about his boys from demons, and they lie but also blah blah. I prefer small and undramatic, though, so what if instead it's that one day John's home and he's actually slept well for once and he's not hungover and he's just going through the paper at the table, and Dean's cleaning the guns like he's supposed to and Sam's doing homework like he's supposed to and John, not being an idiot or a monk, just -- picks up on a vibe. A look Sam gives Dean. A smile from Dean to Sam that John's had aimed at himself, in key moments, and he just -- knows, the way that sometimes you know things, and he's sitting there with the paper and his hands turn to fists.

He's NOT a shipper on deck. He's NOT thinking 'oh, The Things I Have Done To My Family, O Woe But Unforch That's The Way It Is.' I think he's not thinking at all, in the way that we can ignore deep horrors if we have to, and he closes the paper, and he says he's going out, and he takes Sam with him because -- he's the dad, he gets to -- and Sam's sullen in the passenger seat as they head to the gun store or to buy salt or whatever errand John's operational-matters mind invents, and they barely talk but John watches Sam as they go through the chores and gears are turning and he --

stops fucking Dean. Stops talking much to them at all, for a while. Takes jobs and sends Dean on jobs and makes Sam help. Work, and work, and work, and when they're alone once Dean's not being subtle about trying not to look at John, because he doesn't know what he did wrong but he must've done something wrong, and John can't say, and he knows it's hurting Dean but then again when has he ever not done something he thought was necessary because it might have hurt Dean? And Dean heals because that's also what Dean always does, but there's a crooked spot where the bone broke, and later when John's dead and Sam holds Dean on a night after and kisses his cheekbone, careful, not sure what's okay now that everything's even more fucked up, Dean keeps his eyes open on the ceiling and sees ghosts of older days.

[ananke-xiii]

Castiel: vessel, body, woman, (best) friend.

This title comes from a previous post of mine where I talked about Yockey’s episodes in s12 and how they all deal with the theme of interconnection between motherhood/fatherhood and human vessels vs demons, angels and other humans. Ultimately, the post was about Kelly Kline, the final “doll”, the real one, true vessel used to pour angelic grace in, give birth to a Nephilim and be discarded once her “job” is done.

However, since I’ve been thinking about the mothers of gods and monsters and how they all, in some way or another, end up being associated with Castiel, I’ve found an interesting discovery about “Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets” (the linked post about mothers and this one seem to be disconnected now but it will all make sense with later posts, I promise).

I’ll quote myself from my initial post in order to explain my theory:

Cas: Benjamin is always very careful. Long ago, he found a powerfully devout vessel in Madrid, and her faith, it… she gave him everything – her trust and her body. Dean: Wait. So Benjamin’s a woman. Cas: Benjamin is an angel. His vessel is a woman. But it – it’s – it’s more than that. She’s not just his vessel. Sam: She’s… She’s his friend. Cas: Yeah. Benjamin would never put her in unnecessary danger. So Lily killed Benjamin, the angel AND the “powerfully devout from Madrid” who’s first described as a vessel, a body, then as a woman, then again as “more than that/not just a vessel” and ultimately as a friend (with a romantic undertone to the word). So we GOTTA ask: when is a human being just a body? And when a vessel? Are there “vessels” and “not just [some angel’s]vessel”?

I’ve always interpreted this dialogue as an interesting lesson on “Angels and Gender Politics”, and it is, but maybe there’s something less intellectual and more mundane about it. Maybe it's just the same-old SPN parallels technique. But more fun.

“Vessel, body, woman, friend” is how the powerfully devout woman in Madrid is described. But in this episode, “vessel, body, woman, friend” is also Castiel. Castiel is the powerfully devout woman in Madrid and Dean’s… her Benjamin. There’s a complete reversal of roles here where Cas is paralleld to a human and Dean’s his angel which I find very interesting.

The comparison between Dean and Benjamin starts even before the Castiel-woman-in-Madrid one:

CAS: It was, um... Look, Benjamin wouldn't call for help lightly. And he wouldn't put himself in harm's way if he could help it. DEAN: Wow, this Benjamin seems like he's pretty cool, you know. Like he wouldn't make any half-cocked, knee-jerk choices. CAS: Yeah, you know what I like about him? Is that he's sarcastic, but he's thoughtful and appreciative, too. DEAN: Now what is that supposed to mean?

What Dean is saying here is that Benjamin is not Cas because Benjamin sounds like a cool type who wouldn’t make reckless decisions (while Cas is not this type of person). But what Cas is saying is that Benjamin’s like Dean because they’re both sarcastic but Benjamin is better than Dean because he’s also thoughtful and appreciative (while Dean’s not).

Let’s see if I’m right about this.

Vessel.

The moment Cas meets Ishim and Mirabel he just has to open his mouth and say it: “Kept your vessels all this time. I'm impressed”. Ishim and Mirabel say that they were not careless with their vessels like Cas was. Which, of course, means that they’ve known Cas in is “old him”, his old vessel.

Body.

Whether they like it or not (and Ishim doesn’t like it because he thinks humans are apes, monkeys and primates which, to be fair with Ishim, is not technically not true however he does throw shade at us) angels on earth are incarnated beings, meaning that to live on Earth they need to take… a body. Specifically, a human body (no cat angels for us). Human bodies, however, are, from an angel’s pov, weak. Ishim might have been careful with his vessel but this doesn’t mean he can’t get hurt. Lily doesn’t manage to kill him in the alley but she hurts him a great deal because his wound is deep and healing it will be painful. Bodies suck, huh? But maybe also… not so much after all.

Woman.

The big reveal of this episode is that Cas’ old vessel was a woman. We don’t know anything else but the fact that she was a woman. We don’t even know if Sam and Dean know about it because we see the backstory through a flashback while obviously they don’t. They must have wondered because they know for sure that Castiel took Jimmy Novak as his vessel after resurrecting Dean. Whatever the case may be, though, what we know is that that was the first time Castiel possessed a person to visit Earth.

Friend.

Friendship is one of the episode’s themes. It’s not the central one but they do bring up friendship a lot. Benjamin and the devout woman were "friends". Benjamin and Castiel were friends. The angels in Ishim’s garrison were friends. Sam and Dean are friends with Castiel. Dean and Castiel are best friends. Since Benjamin and the devout woman were established as “friends”, meaning that they were a little more than that, then where does it leave us? Well, frankly the usual: Cas and Dean are more than friends. Woah, what a surprise, I absolutely did not see that one coming.

The scene that confirms that my theory is correct is when Ishim dares Dean to finalize the sigil and blast every angel in the room. You see, “Benjamin would never put her in unnecessary danger”. Neither does Dean with Cas.

The scene also pretty much sums up the whole episode as far as the theme of “vessel, body, woman, friend” is concerned. Cas has healed Ishim who’s now fully recovered and brimming health from every pore. Cas, on the other hand? Not so much.

ISHIM: I used to envy you, Castiel. You believe that? ISHIM: You survived Hell. You were chosen by God. But now look at you. You're just sad and pathetically weak. ISHIM: So now... I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna cure you of your human weakness same way I cured my own– ISHIM: – by cutting it out. DEAN: Don't move. ISHIM: Do it. You blast me away, you'll blast away every angel in the room. I'll survive. Castiel, on the other hand, he's hurt. He might live or he might just end up a bloody smear on the wall. Roll the dice.

Castiel’s “bodiness” is exposed in this scene, but there is a… ahem… “positive” side? Unlike the poor guy that Ishim is wearing as his meatsuit (ugh), Cas doesn’t have to worry about his vessel’s safety but his own. He is his own vessel now (well, he kinda still stole the looks from Jimmy Novak, nevertheless his vessel has become his body. An angel with his own body, crazy, I know. Maybe this is really why Ishim is jealous of him). Which, to be honest, is still concerning because Cas is reckless as fuck. Thank God Dean is not.

Dean doesn’t roll the dice, he doesn’t endanger his powerfully devout friend, he doesn’t bet on the odds of having to scoop up Cas’ remains from the wall.

So cool, right? Do you think that Cas has learnt the value of life, the value of his own life and will be less reckless with it? Of course not!

By the end of the episode Cas still says (re Billie’s murder)that he doesn’t regret his actions even if they cost him his life. He also says, after all he’s been through with Lily Sunder, that he doesn’t know if he’s capable of killing an innocent baby or not.

SAM: But, Cas, at the end of the day, it's a mom and her kid. I mean, do you – do you think you'll be able to... CAS: There was a time when I wouldn't have hesitated. But now, I don't know.

I don’t know if the show ever answers this question. He does bring Kelly to the “sandbox” but then Dagon shows up and then Joshua gets killed and then Kelly takes his hand and then Jack shows him “the future”… And then, and then, and then. Stuff happened, life happened, you know? I mean, it’s complicated but this is what makes it more interesting!

[destielshippingnews]

Edvard's Supernatural Guide 2x03 Bloodlust

2x03 Bloodlust is the second episode in what some people have called the ‘Dark Dean Arc’, i.e. the three episodes following John’s death. Dean deals with his bereavement and the burden John placed on him in a self-destructive and sometimes frightening manner. I referred to episodes 2x03 and 2x04 in my previous review, saying that it was not until these two episodes that the severity of Dean’s distress and loss is visible. While I do not think that his behaviour itself is quite as worrisome and bad as some make it out to be, it is definitely indicative of a seriously troubled mind and an ailing spirit.

As for Sam, Sera Gamble shows she really is a Samgirl. She is very keen to present him as the morally upstanding counterpart to Dean’s brutish barbarity, the saint to Dean’s sinner, the Brain to Dean’s Pinky. This heavy bias was less apparent in series 1 when she wrote with Raelle Tucker on 1x12 Faith and 1x21 Salvation, but without her writing partner nothing holds her back. The reverse is true of Raelle Tucker’s solo work, as 2x20 What Is and What Should Never Be shows, but she does not take Sam to such an extreme as Sera Gamble does. She also does not seem to dislike Sam, which cannot be said of Gamble and Dean, but that is a story for another time.

First things first: look at his wee little outfit! (And look at him check that guy out.)

On to the episode, and this one is about vampires, the creatures who were supposedly almost wiped out but have now appeared twice within a space of six episodes. I will have less to say on the subject of vampires in this episode than I did in my review of 1x20 Dead Man’s Blood because I have already said most of it, but one thing worth bearing in mind is that this episode aired about three years before the Twilight films were released. Perhaps Gamble and Tucker had read the books and were intrigued by the idea of ‘vegetarian’ vampires (this would make since given how much Gamble’s writing in e.g. 2x17 Heart resembles soap opera melodrama), but at the time of the episode’s release this was definitely unusual in the vampire genre, Louis in Interview with the Vampire notwithstanding.

Speaking of vampires, the cold open of the episode shows a woman (later revealed to be a vampire) running away from a dark figure in the woods at night, only to end up beheaded on screen just before title card. The viewer is supposed to identify with the woman, because she is a woman running scared and we have seen this same scene in umpteen horror films. We are of course supposed to empathise with her, and her death is supposed to shock us and show us that the monster is monstrous. It is interesting that the ‘monster’ in the show is actually a human, and the victim a monster. This is the first time the show has really introduced this idea that monsters can be victims and the hunters can be the bad guys. It is relevant because Sam is on the road to becoming a ‘monster’ and John has burdened Dean with becoming the one to hunt and kill him. Who, in that situation, would be the real monster and who the hero?

This episode does not provide absolute answers, but instead focuses on grey area and nuance. But more on that later. First, context for those who do not remember the episode:

Reports of what appears to be cattle mutilations and exsanguinations draw Dean and Sam to investigate a case in northern Montana. The sceptical sheriff acts a bit shifty and appears to wilfully misinterpret Dean and Sam’s intentions with the case. They said clearly that the cattle mutilations could possible be a Satanic ritual, but the sheriff misconstrues this as them thinking Satan did it. Having been on the internet as long as I have, I have grown exceedingly accustomed to interacting with people with the reading comprehension capabilities of a cauliflower, but this took the biscuit.

It turns out that the cattle killings actually WERE Dean and Sam’s kind of case, but the cause was vampires who did not drink human blood, subsisting instead by exsanguinating livestock. A hunter named Gordon is killing the vampires on principle of them being vampires, disregarding their rejection of human blood. Dean is drawn over to Gordon’s way of thinking due to several reasons, but is eventually forced to change his stance and fight Gordon when he sees how much lead vampire Lenore fights against her vampiric nature. Gordon loses the fight, the vampires escape, and the episode ends.

Note the name of the newspaper Dean and Sam claim to be reporters for: World Weekly News. This is an actual newspaper which is referred to on various occasions throughout the run of the show, and which has featured at least one faux-article on Dean and Sam. It will be referenced again in episode 2x15 Tall Tales, the episode where a young man is repeatedly raped and we are supposed to laugh at it because a) he is a man and b) he ‘deserved it’. Would we be invited to laugh at The Trickster conjuring an ‘alien’ to ‘probe’ a young woman who ‘deserved it’? I think not.

Note also that Dean is the ‘stupid’ brother in the sheriff’s office and cannot remember the name of the newspaper. Yes, this is most certainly a Sera Gamble episode. Give me strength...

How adorable was it, by the way, when fanzines and faux-articles still existed? I saw a Smallville magazine from 2004 for sale on eBay, and searched my soul for whether I was willing to pay £24 plus p+p for a two-page spread about Jason Teague… As for the question ‘Why did Jason Teague go so bad?’, the answer is ‘because the writers of Smallville make the writing of Supernatural look competent’.

And back to the show…

Returning to the opening of the episode proper, what might be obvious to the viewer is how Dean’s mood is drastically different at the beginning of this episode than it was at the end of 2x02 Everybody Loves a Clown. A few weeks, perhaps a month or two, has clearly passed since Dean played whack-a-mole on the boot of his car. Now it is in perfect working order, and Dean’s mask appears to be very tightly on. He seems normal, chipper even, something which Sam feels it necessary to make a redundant conversation about. Is this what normal humans do? Constantly comment on people’s emotional state? I would feel like I am in a panopticon or something. Just let it go, Sam: not everything needs to be a conversation just because you constantly roll a Nat 0 on perception.

This scene is one of few scenes in the show where I can see both Jared AND Jensen acting, but the fault is not in their work, but rather the fact it is obvious the car is not actually moving at all. Instead, it is in front of giant but very convincing screens playing landscape scenes to look like the view from a speeding car. The car itself does not look like it is moving, however, so Dean’s hands on the wheel look strange and fake. Most people will not have noticed it, though, but I am cursed with knowledge.

Now that those who have forgotten have the necessary context, are up to speed, I can get onto the interesting part of the analysis. The main thematic takeaway from 2x03 Bloodlust is better understood as an informed viewer. Upon my first watch of this episode just after Christmas about 12-13 years ago, it did not stand out. I liked seeing Amber Benson on screen again but the story did nothing to interest me.

Knowing where the show is going makes a vital difference, though. Dean knows he might one day have to kill Sam because of Sam’s psychic powers, and is torn between two sides of himself – here manifested as Lenore and Gordon. Gordon is a weltanschauung of moral absolutes, whereas Lenore is nuance. Gordon is an extreme exaggeration of archetypal masculine traits – control, order and stasis. He is not interested in any shades of grey regarding monsters. They are not human, they are a danger, and so must be killed. In contrast, Lenore is a touch of the archetypal feminine – change and unpredictability. The vampires diverged from their inherent nature, electing to not be controlled by it so they can live in peace. This is analogous to the conflict in Dean; Sam could become a monster, and as a monster he will be a danger and must be killed. But can Sam overcome his nature and live in peace?

To add further layers to this, Gordon the human is the one who behaves like a monster, whereas Lenore and Eli act positively human and sympathetic. As Glory is a representation of the monster Buffy fears she will have to become if she fully embraces her slayer calling, so too is Gordon a representation of the monster Dean will have to become to kill Sam. Contrasted with this is the mirror of Lenore who is a ‘monster’ fighting her hardest to be ‘good’, as Sam might if he becomes a ‘monster’. What this is telling the informed viewer is that, in this situation, Dean might become the true monster.

Dean’s ‘flirtation’ (here not intended with sexual implications) with Gordon is Dean walking the path of deadening himself to his love for Sam, thereby learning to numb himself and dehumanise his brother in order that he may one day be capable of killing him. Gordon is a reflection of a part of Dean, and Gordon clearly says of monsters “They’re not human”, the unspoken denouement thereto being “...they’re monsters, so it’s necessary and good to kill them.” Dean intended wholeheartedly to kill Lenore because she is not human, and therefore a monster.

Lenore is also polysemetic mirror of both Sam’s future and Dean’s hesitation. As Lenore does not want to give in to her monstrous tendencies and become the thing Dean wants to kill, Dean does not want to give into his own monstrous urges and become something he will hate. The struggle is overwhelmingly hard for both, but it is one both are determined to fight at the end.

And as for Evil!Dean… well, not for the last time, but three words come to mind. Such potential, Supernatural.

Having discussed ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ here, I did not intend to conclude anything as banal and trite as ‘the feminine defeated the destructive masculine’ because 1) I do not have time for that nonsense and 2) the exaggerated masculine archetype in Dean was intentionally overblown. It would need to be if a brother were forced to numb himself to future fratricide. The conclusion of the episode sees Dean fight Gordon, the monster he is afraid of becoming. The fight ends in Dean overcoming Gordon and tying him up, with Gordon defeated and silent.

Dean’s apology afterwards accompanied by his acknowledgement of the nuance can be read with more nuance than simplistic gender politics. Rather, there is a hint that equilibrium is being restored within Dean; the archetypal masculine is very much alive and well in him, but it is no longer as overwrought and negatively exaggerated as it was.

That just about does it for abstract, metaphorical analysis for this episode, but plenty remains for me to discuss more generally. One of them is Dean and Gordon’s relationship. Last episode, I mentioned Paula R. Stiles’s comment that Dean befriends people who turn out to be monsters. In 2x02 Everybody Loves a Clown, it was the blind man who was the rakshasa, and in this episode it is Gordon.

Their bond was based on trauma-bonding and a mutual experience of enacting violence on monsters. Gordon shared the story of his sister being bitten by a vampire, with the twist being that he found and killed his sister (or it would be a twist if that were not Gunn’s story in Angel, and similar to the abduction of Mulder’s sister in The X-Files). Dean actually felt comfortable opening up to Gordon about John’s death and how much he was struggling. Dean said he could not talk to Sam about those things I said last episode. In addition to everything I said there, Dean also has to be the parentalised big brother figure who keeps it together for Sam’s benefit.

Dean’s recent bereavement was almost definitely a contributing factor in his alliance with Gordon. Gordon did not doubt himself or his morals, and he provided Dean with an illusion of surety and clarity. Dean needed this after losing his dad, especially considering the burden of killing Sam. For the last few weeks or months, Dean has been scared, angry, lonely, doubtful, and grieving without anybody to support or help him. Then along comes Gordon who deals in absolutes and certainties. This would of course be an attractive chance to feel in control for Dean, so it is completely natural he cleaved to Gordon in spite of Sam’s warnings.

Having said ’bond’, ’attractive’ and ’cleave to’, some readers might be under the impression I saw romantic and/or sexual subtext between Dean and Gordon. I did not. The only male characters I have really seen Dean have romantic and sexual subtext with are Castiel, Lee (15x07), and the guy at the beginning of 6x01 Exile on Main Street who had been buying Dean beers for the last year. I do not see anything more than a ’brotherhood’ between Dean and Benny, nothing sexual at all between Dean and Henriksen in their five minutes of shared screen-time, and nothing between Dean and Ketch. I have been on the internet long enough to have seen all these pairings, but only Dean/Cas and Dean/Lee seem valid to me. I am not the arbiter of whom Dean did or did not pork or get porked by, but I am a man attracted to men and I just do not see it. And Benny calls Dean ’brother’ far too often for their bond to be sexual.

Returning to Gordon providing Dean with a clear direction and course of action, Sam is right to note that perhaps Gordon is an ersatz father for Dean, though Sam is perhaps wrong to claim Gordon is nowhere near as good a hunter as John. As far as I can tell, John and Gordon are quite a bit alike: other hunters eschew them, they think in black and white, and they are dangerous to be around.

Sam really should not have said anything about Dean and John in the car park scene, especially not when Dean was clearly so riled up by Sam’s pestering. The punch should not have happened, but given Sam’s incessant mithering and snapping in the previous episode, and his patronising, gauche attempt to psychoanalyse Dean in a motel car park, it is not surprising that Sam’s continued, whiney nagging ends with his face colliding with Dean’s fist at high velocity. ’You slap on this big fake smile but I can see right through it.” Well done, Mr Big Smart-Smart. At least you did not try the sanctimonious act again and claim Dean was insulting John’s memory to try to shame him about making a friend who is not Sam. Oh wait...

People who read my analysis of the previous episode might remember this quote:

[Sam] is a yapping chihuahua who has not learnt that yapping at a German Shepherd is a sure way to get a giant paw in your face.

And what do you know, the yappy dog finally got a paw in his face.

Whilst on this subject, it bears mentioning that Dean and Sam are adult brothers of roughly equal physical build, height, and strength. Neither has any (inherent) power over the other in their relationship, because being brothers is an equal relationship, at least in theory. I have laid into John due to the likelihood he used physical violence with poco!Dean, and held Dean hostage in a mentally, physically, and possibly sexually abusive father-son relationship. John had inherent power in that relationship, being the one in power over his son. He misused that power in many ways, and Dean’s lack of self-esteem, his self-destructive and suicidal tendencies etc are the natural result of this, as is his erstwhile obedience to John.

Some people critical of Dean like to claim that Dean is an abusive older brother, and I have referred to this line of criticism before. Evidence such criticism cites is the fact that Dean punches Sam on a few occasions in the show, and a tiny number of comments can be construed as implying Dean was a physically-abusive older brother to Sam. One such line appears in this episode shortly before said punch. In the pub after Dean beheads the vampire with the chainsaw, Sam gets all uppity and sanctimonious about decapitations not being his idea of a god time, then decides to leave Dean and Gordon alone while he returns to the hotel. As Sam makes his exit, Dean says “Sammy, remind me to beat that buzzkill out of you later, alright?”

This line has been taken to support interpretations that Dean is to Sam what John was to Dean. In their defence, this is something taken directly from the text, but that is the only defence I can offer them: one would have to think that characters always mean what they say and say what they mean in every single situation to think this supports such an interpretation. Yes, Dean says this, but does Sam act around Dean the way Dean acts around John? Does Sam act like Dean uses violence or the threat thereof to control Sam? Does Sam act like a battered husband around Dean?

Quite simply: no. In fact, as I have written many times, Sam is the narcissistic abuser and Dean is the co-dependent abused. ...Who occasionally punches when provoked. Dean’s punch was not part of a pattern of physically-abusive behaviour to control or terrorise Sam. It was just douchey behaviour from a pissed-off brother who appeared to expect Sam to punch him right back. To Dean’s credit, he looked ashamed of himself afterwards... which he should, see above RE: douchey behaviour. If Sam had punched him back, he would have deserved it.

Editor’s note: Remember Sam shooting Dean twice in 1x10 Asylum and never once apologising properly? I remember. Carry on, Dean. Additional editor's note: Dean did take on a huge part of the role of raising Sam, so their relationship is not simply two brothers. However, the show has shown us time and time again that Dean has no authority over Sam, and Sam does not treat Dean like an authority figure or a parent. It is notable that Sam did not punch Dean back here, even though he could have. I will have a bit more to say on this next episode, but I still think what I said a few lines ago: it was douchey, angry, riled-up brother behaviour.

To be fair to Sam, he WAS also trying to talk sense into Dean, and Dean needed somebody to do that, just not in the way Sam was going about it. ’Friendship’ with Gordon is easy for Dean because he is familiar as well as absolute: he shares many traits with John, but also with Dean. Dean is a ’good guy’, but he has an incredible propensity for violence and death and does not always do what a good guy’ should. He is heroic, but not a HeroTM. He is not a psychopath like Gordon, but he finds it easy to relate to people who are. Sam tried to be a counterbalance to this, but failed.

A quote from Paula Stiles:

Because they’re polar opposites, Sam and Gordon need a tie-breaker and that ostrich feather on Osiris’ scales is, naturally, Dean. Dean is the prize over which Sam and Gordon viciously fight to the death (that demon blood thing later on? Just a distraction). It would be easy to argue that’s because Dean’s so awesome and that’s…sort of…true. That is to say, both Sam and Gordon are loners and outcasts who have both only found one real connection (though Sam did have Jessica and Gordon did have his sister, once), that connection being the one hunter who’s even more of a freak than they are (and therefore, won’t reject them). But Dean, freak or not, can only have one BFF at this point in the series and so, Sam and Gordon have to duke it out.

But perhaps the bigger reason why this conflict, or triangle, or what-have-you is so effective is because Dean is the swing voter in Sam and Gordon’s moral war. Tolerance or intolerance? Relativism or absolutism? Dean waffles between the two, balancing on that knife’s bloody edge, which makes him the perfect target for campaigning from both sides. Who will win the war for his heart and soul (and isn’t it an irony that he ends up going his own way after all that?).

Gordon was absolutely lusting after Dean trying to win Dean over to his side of the force. First he encouraged Dean’s despair, then tried to separate him from Sam (”Doesn’t seem like your brother’s much like us.”) This is a tactic used by abusers who want to isolate their victim, and it is telling that Dean apparently is so vulnerable to such manipulation by people he identifies with or cares for. After all, he has known little else than being controlled by a man not too different than Gordon. This manipulation is so powerful that Sam’s (lamentably poor) attempts at getting through to Dean with the nuance of ’the vamps aren’t killing people’ falls on deaf ears, or perhaps deafened ears.

As for the other star of the episode whom I have barely mentioned, Lenore also played a critical role in getting through to Dean. Other than Dean’s abject disgust at Gordon’s treatment (torture) of her, apparently for his own amusement (or misogynistic vindication, as Paula R. Stiles suggests), her staunch refusal to give in sways Dean away from the dark side of the force to the ...well, not the light side, really. Dean is definitely a Sith, but he is far from evil (Remember: the Star Wars films are Jedi propaganda). To avoid paraphrasing or Heaven forbid plagiarising her work, I will take a snippet from Paula Stiles’s analysis again:

But I should note that, despite the pretty-brutal misogyny that Gordon brings to the table (the murder of his sister is clearly cast as a sort of honour killing) and the way he treats Lenore, it would be missing the point to see her as just a helpless victim or Damsel in Distress. Lenore has a stronger will than perhaps anyone in the episode. She is surrounded by angry men itching for a fight, but even though she could probably clean the floor with Gordon, Sam or Dean, she risks her life under extreme torture to stick to her principles. And it’s really this that saves the day. If she had not shown that kind of fortitude, neither Sam nor Dean would have thought twice about letting Gordon kill off her entire nest. Amber Benson does a good job of playing Lenore as a different kind of Hero who controls her own bloodlust and influences two out of the three hunters she encounters to control theirs. That’s pretty impressive.

Lenore is indeed light-years away from being weak, but the strength she embodies is the opposite of the masculine strength Dean embodies (and Gordon negatively exaggerates). Her greatest strength in this episode is not her physical strength, but her strength of will, endurance, and her determination to change things for the better, and her caring for the wellbeing of others. This is an archetypically feminine kind of strength: it is quiet, subtle, discreet, but no less powerful than archetypical masculine strength.

Another fictional character who embodies this feminine strength is Galadriel. She is an incredibly powerful sorceress and enchantress who shielded and guarded an elven realm with her magic for millennia, but her strength lies also in her ability to nurture life, in providing a sanctuary to rest and heal, her self-control, wisdom, perception, and insight, and her refusal to surrender to her demons. Dean’s masculine strength is a potent force, but so is Galadriel’s steadfast perseverance. In The Lord of the Rings films by Peter Jackson, Cate Blanchette did an incomparable job of portraying this: she exuded an aetheral presence which demanded attention and could silence a room with a single glance.

Even in the disastrous The Hobbit trilogy, she has her moments of weakness but refuses to surrender. Without her presence at Dol Guldur, The White Council might not have managed to oust Sauron.

She almost certainly knew how to defend herself with weapons, but she did all this without once picking up a phallic symbol or punching anybody. Funnily enough, only two elves have been able to best Sauron in a one-on-one duel, and both were elf-women: Galadriel and her mentor Melian's daughter Lúthien, both of them using sorcery in different forms. Lúthien even bested Sauron's master Morgoth with her magic song and stole one of the Silmarils from his crown. Her uncle High King Fingolfin who challenged Morgoth to a duel and wounded him seven times, including a wound in his foot which never healed and caused Morgoth to limp forever, the cost being Fingolfin's own life.

That people think there are no 'strong women' in Tolkien's work is utterly risible to me. Quite apart from Éowyn, females in Tolkien's work are incredibly powerful, just not necessarily in the same sword-and-shield way as men.

Lenore lacks the powers of an enchantress and sorceress, yet she still did not have to lift a single finger to triumph over Gordon and save her nest. Considering this is a Supernatural episode and not Buffy, it is a pleasant surprise to have this amount of metaphor and interplay of different forces: masculine vs feminine, yin vs yang, light vs dark, absolution vs nuance, etc.

Which brings me on to a last few minor points of discussion. Lenore is the name of the dead wife in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven poem, and indeed another poem bearing the name Lenore. The poem is about a man driven to ’madness’ out of grief for the fact he will never see his dead wife again. The raven in question is a metaphor for this despair and hopelessness, perched upon the bust of St Pallas above the narrator’s chamber door where its shadow lay floating on the floor. The looming, heavy presence of despair after the death of a loved one will not go away, but rather wears away at the narrator’s sanity. Other than the alarming comparison of Dean grief with that of a man grieving his wife, the rest is a fitting parallel, especially as the narrator does not even believe he will see his lost Lenore in Heaven.

Less pleasing was the claim at the end of the episode that ’Dad did the best he could’. I often think that the writers of this show are unaware of exactly what picture they painted of John in series one, or indeed over the entirety of the show. Other times I think they are aware of it and want to ret-con or fix their mistakes. Unfortunately, that ship has long since sailed, and no amount of apologism can fix it. I intend to watch The Winchesters when it comes out, but I have already written about Jensen’s apparent attempts to ameliorate the audience’s perception of John (Jensen, WHY?!). I do not intend to forget that just because The Winchesters wants me to like John. Whatever the reason for the ’Dad did the best he could’ line, I wish the writers had stopped trying to make us forget what we had seen with crap like this. John did not do the best he could, but I have gone over this in depth in this essay, so I will leave this for now.

Regarding Gordon for one last time, he said in this episode that Dean ’is a sadistic killer, just like me’, and Dean believes this is true of himself. It is not true, of course, but Dean believes it is because it is what he was groomed to be. The same episode tells us that Dean was killing werewolves with John at age 16 while Sam was safe in the car. 16 would be a very young age to be doing this, but at that age Dean had already been hunting with John for a few years, and had known how to fire a gun for about a decade.

On the subject of Sam, his ability to remember the way to Lenore’s nest based on the time elapsed, the direction the car went etc all while blind-folded was a little hilarious. I understand the show wants us to think Sam is Resourceful and Intelligent, but this stretched my belief a bit too far. The way he ’worked out’ that Gordon already knew the vampires were good was also quite the impressive logical saltation: according to Sam, Gordon killed his sister who had been turned in to a vampire, therefore Gordon knew the vampires were good. How Sam worked this out is anybody’s guess, because the show certainly did not tell me how.

The vampire named Eli is played by Ty Olson, the same actor who portrayed Benny in series 8.

Some people have tried to work out how this can be explained within the show, but Benny’s story before ending up in Purgatory does not match with Eli’s. Spatial-genetic multiplicity is the explanation I go with. As for Ty Olson, this is his second appearance on screen with Jensen, their first being in Dark Angel 2x11 The Berrisford Agenda.

Now I miss Alec again.

Moving on before this turns into a meeting of the Helsinki Chapter of the Jensen Fan-Boys society, one last thing before I finish this. Dean killing the vampire did not seem unduly violent to me. I have just re-watched 2x04 Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things, which features Sam claiming Dean is ‘scary while hunting’, but if this is the case, the show has not done a good job of portraying this. The vampire Dean killed was trying his hardest to kill him, and the only thing Dean did which was not necessary to kill the vampire was punching it twice. I am aware I am supposed to be horrified that Dean killed the vampire with the chainsaw, but I am really not. Yes, it was gross, but the vampire had just tried to do the same to Gordon and would have done the same to Dean, so… what is the problem? Yes, he was a vegetarian vampire, but only Gordon knew that at the time. As far as Dean knew, the vampire was the same as the ones in 1x20 Dead Man’s Blood, and he used what tools he had at hand to get the job done. He did look deeply shaken by it, though.

Was the horrific part the fact that he looked at what he was doing while it was happening instead of looking away? I really do not know. Maybe I have watched too much Hannibal and The Walking Dead to be particularly bothered by that death, so I do not understand why Sam was so uppity about it.

Thus concludeth my analysis of 2x03 Bloodlust.

[ao3wincest]

Reverb

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/XUCxFRt by roxymissrose Dean wakes up alone in the car in the dark. Well, sure, of course he is. Sam's gone, Stanford's got him. But that's wrong, Sam's back, with him. He's pretty sure he's back. So, if that's true, then where is Sam? Words: 10591, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Supernatural (TV 2005) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: M/M Characters: Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester Relationships: Dean Winchester/Sam Winchester Additional Tags: SPN Eldritch Reverse Bang 2025, AU Season 1, Horror, Implied/Attempted Sexual Assault, Pining, SPN Eldritch Bang read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/XUCxFRt