#but really this is s12 as everydamnthing redux

[mittensmorgul]

6.01: Dean’s year of El Sol comes to an end with a wake up call from a djinn...

You can’t outrun your past.

The whole idea that Dean could just leave his entire life behind, everything he’d ever know, to live that normal life with Lisa, was always destined to fail. (again, sorry, y’all gotta know I’m grinding my teeth to nubbins over the promise Sam forced on Dean...)

(Worst. Thing. Ever.)

(Asking Dean, as his dying wish, to go live the life that SAM had always wanted to live, without a damn care about what Dean might want, about who DEAN REALLY IS AT THE CORE OF HIS BEING. Because that was a huge damn assumption on Sam’s part, that Dean would want the same thing HE always wanted.)

(And we have absolute proof of that after s12. Sam really doesn’t understand Dean very well at all, but at least he’s learning now. Because who Dean is (as we learned once and for all in 12.11) is a hunter. With all his other memories wiped away, Dean’s instincts take over and he IS a hunter.)

There’s so much deception going on in this episode though. Like EVERYTHING Dean has to tell EVERYONE, from his buddy who lives across the street right down to Lisa herself, IS A FREAKING LIE. I mean, what an awful freaking way to live. Never being able to tell the truth to ANYONE, putting on this mask of normality every single day...

Like the opening montage to Beautiful Loser, it all looks like a drudgery that Dean does his best to smile his way through, with flashes to similar acts from his life before. NOTHING HAS CHANGED for Dean, but the setting. He’s going through these motions but instead of beheading a vampire he’s chopping a board, instead of prying a coffin open he’s prying siding off a house he’s remodeling, instead of grabbing beers with Sam he’s drinking at a neighborhood picnic... and he can’t let go of that past because he’s constantly having to redefine it with lies that are painfully close to the truth yet sanitized for this new apple pie life...

(have I mentioned that this was literally the worst thing that Sam has ever asked Dean to do...)

Dean: you been back practically this whole time?! What, did you lose the ability to send a friggin' text message?! Sam: You finally had what you wanted, Dean. Dean: I wanted my brother, alive! Sam: You wanted a family. You have for a long time, maybe the whole time. I know you. You only gave it up because of the way we lived. But you had something, and you were building something. Had I shown up, Dean, you would have just run off. I'm sorry. But it felt like after everything, you deserve some regular life.

(*gnashes teeth* FUCK NO YOU ARE WRONG SAM. He didn’t want THIS. This is what YOU wanted him to want. Not the same thing, Sam.

And yes I know he’s soulless here and just Does Not Get It, and has zero ability to empathize, and we see later that all his instincts about people are shot to hell without his soul to even sympathize with what Dean might want here, but to me this is the ultimate proof that Dean played “Performing Dean” way too well, and that Sam bought into it all way too well, also.)

(okay this is where I inch way too close to the line of Bitter Dean Girl, so imma back off before my head explodes)

Enter Samuel, who Dean is shocked to also see back from the dead, and the flashbacks to Mary’s original deal with Azazel and Samuel’s original death. And one of the big reasons why we started s12 with the notion that it was going to be a redux of s6. That’s panned out to a large extent, but if you’ve been reading along in my rewatch at all, it’s really an entire series redux. S6 didn’t occur in a vacuum, and was already attempting to Find Another Way, based on the first five seasons. And s6 was the real turning point in that particular journey.

I ADORE s6 for a lot of reasons, because in a lot of ways it’s the beginning of Dean having stepped in front of his destiny just a bit, and it’s the first major test of Dean’s gut instincts, where the story begins hinging on the choices he makes. Even when everything in the universe is conspiring against him, he catches on quick, and he TRUSTS HIMSELF above everything else.

Dean: Do you have any clue what walking away meant for me? Bobby: Yeah -- a woman and a kid and not getting your guts ripped out at age 30. That's what it meant. Dean: That woman and that kid -- I went to them because you asked me to. Bobby: Good. Dean: Good for who? I showed up on their doorstep half out of my head with grief. God knows why they even let me in. I drank too much. I had nightmares. I looked everywhere. I collected hundreds of books, trying to find anything to bust you out. Sam: You promised you'd leave it alone. Dean: Of course I didn't leave it alone! Sue me! A damn year? You couldn't put me out of my misery? Bobby: Look, I get it wasn't easy. But that's life! And it's as close to happiness as I've ever seen a hunter get. It ain't like I wanted to lie to you, son. But you were out, Dean. Dean: Do I look out to you?

Maybe the more important question was, “Do I look HAPPY to you?” Because yeesh. What right did Sam have to presume that Dean was HAPPY. That Sam told BOBBY that Dean was happy in his new life? Despite the facts that Dean just laid out about how horribly he was coping in that life?

Dean: I should've known. I should've known that if I stayed with you that something would come, because something always does. But I was stupid and reckless and...You can't outrun your past.

(yeah that was the tagline for s11...)

Dean: Oh, yeah. Go ahead, say it -- call me a soccer mom. Whatever. Samuel: "Soccer mom," huh? Well, I'll have to look that up on the "intranet." You know, believe it or not, I...I get it, Dean. You wanted a normal life. Your mom wanted a normal life, too. You remind me of her, actually. The attitude, for one thing. Your brother tell you what we been dealing with the past few months?

Dean getting judged left and right, yet proving that he’s just as good (or better) than all the Campbells  combined. And this does recall Mary’s “call the internet” line from 12.02. But really, Samuel just doesn’t get Dean either.

Yes, Mary wanted a normal life, and she wanted normal lives for their children, but Dean is so far beyond normal anymore, he knows who he is and has made his peace with it. And what he is is in no way “normal.”

But the sheer fact that “You can’t outrun your past,” but with Samuel in s6 and Mary in s12, Dean (and Sam) are having to literally face down these pillars of their past, but it’s giving them a chance to rebuild those pillars so they can become a true foundation for the future instead of a cobbled-together structure they’d been believing in all these years.

The djinn poison shows Dean the exact same scenario playing out with Lisa and Ben that had played out with Mary and Sam when he was little-- Azazel killing Lisa on the ceiling, feeding Ben demon blood, all while Dean lies helpless on the bed.

S6 began this rewrite of the entire Grand Plan. but in this iteration, Dean’s already walking in armed with all of this knowledge about the machinations of Heaven and Hell, about Angels and Demons, about the role he was supposed to play-- DESTINED to play, and yet defied by a judicious application of free will.

He’s starting out the rewrite, the second attempt at the apocalypse, already ahead of the game... with one key missing factor: Castiel.

And it’s all down to the horrifying promise Sam had extracted from Dean in 5.22. That Cas hadn’t been willing to ask Dean to break. And all of that led to the ruination of the next two seasons, which in turn led to the ruination of Dean himself by the beginning of s10...  Can you tell I really fucking hate that promise? All based on Sam’s lack of understanding of who Dean is as a person because he bought in to Dean’s performance and Dean had been unwilling to shatter the performance when Sam was asking this dying wish of him before making the ultimate sacrifice to save the world? Yeah... Hate it all. :P

Which brings us back around to s12... Where Sam is making these unilateral decisions to work with the MoL, to bring about this “world without monsters” so that Dean (and he himself, but Dean) can finally have this “white picket fence” life without having his past come back to haunt him again? All the while Dean is showing him in big and small ways behind the curtain of his performance mask. And Sam is beginning to see the real picture here.

Sam: Look, I practically shoved you at them. Dean: That's a funny way to put it, but all right. Sam: I'm just saying, I really wanted that for you. And when I told you to go, I-I thought... You could have it, you know? But now I'm not so sure. I mean, you got to consider the fact that you'll be putting them in danger if you go back.

Yep. SAM wanted that for Dean. That’s SAM’s dream. NOT DEAN’S. And even soulless, Sam recognizes the fact he screwed up here... And for a brief second, he recognizes just how important Dean’s instincts and influence are on him, because Dean EMBODIES the perfect hunter. Not Sam’s cold, methodical, whatever gets the job done practicality.

Sam: You just went. You didn't hesitate. Because you care, and that's who you are. Me? I wouldn't even think to try. Dean: Yes, you would. Sam: No, Dean. I'm telling you, it's just better with you around. That's all.

And then the real kicker, the one that makes Dean suspect there’s something really not quite right about Sam, he refuses the keys to the Impala when Dean offers them. After it was the Impala that saved the world, and Sam’s attachment to his lifetime of memories associated with it...

But Dean’s still too preoccupied with protecting Lisa and Ben from the nightmares he’s brought into their lives to really see it yet.

[mittensmorgul]

6.03: ... because I lie professionally, that’s why.

Me @ Mr. Mittens (telling him what happens in the opening minutes of this episode): ... and then Dean drives to Pennsylvania. Mr. Mittens (in Dracula voice): Muahaha Pennsylvania. Me: So many bad things happen to them in Pennsylvania. Mr. Mittens: Huh. That’s true. Me: Then again bad things happen to them pretty much everywhere, so...

Sam is just... so not Sammy. And Cas is acting pretty shady, too. Poor Dean has to manage them both.

Sam is lying to Dean about pretty much everything, because soulless. But the main thing he’s lying about is that he knows there’s something wrong with him. He’s largely staying away from Dean (separate cars, Dean had been trying to hold something together with Lisa up to this point, Sam’s actually PAYING for sex in direct contrast to 4.01 where he even joked with Dean (to cover up Ruby’s identity when he found them in a motel together) that he didn’t pay for it...

But now in s12 Sam DOES have his soul (thank freaking god, because yeesh), but he’s still keeping certain truths from Dean. His mission to lie about working for the MoL only lasted two weeks (and the span of a single episode) before Dean wheedled it out of him. Because Dean wasn’t worried about something inherently wrong with Sam himself this time (no demon blood, not soulless, so hey, we’re already one step ahead of s6 Dean...)

And then there’s Cas, who Dean hasn’t talked to in more than a year, because Cas booped out on him to handle the war in Heaven after Dean promised Sam he’d get out of hunting and live a normal life. *he watches Dean RAKE FUCKING LEAVES and is tempted away by Crowley ffs because he couldn’t make Dean break his promise to Sam*

*pauses to wail for five minutes*

Cas has compromised himself in so many ways, lying to Sam and Dean, having to stay away from them now, because it’s already been a year since he made his deal with Crowley, and there’s no going back for him now. I mean, what could Sam and Dean even do to help him battle Raphael and his loyal forces of Heaven? His “people skills” are “rusty” and in a lot of ways he’s reverted back to Warrior Of Heaven mode to even cope with the things he’s found himself having to do in the name of stopping Apocalypse Part Deux.

CASTIEL: Dean! If I get the name, I can work a ritual to track the angel down. DEAN: And I'm all for that. But come on. There's got to be another way. CASTIEL: There is no other way. DEAN: You're gonna torture a kid? CASTIEL: I can't care about that, Dean! I don't have the luxury.

All while Chilly Droid Sam watches on without a care.

D:

(Dean says he was expecting “more Dr. No, less Liberace” at Balthazar’s house, and first thing you see inside is a grand piano under a bunch of disco lights. I’m sure there’s no subtext there. >.>)

I think we’ve also talked over every angle of the Handprint vs the Mark on Aaron’s soul, so I’m not gonna even bother with it here... but Balthazar does say one thing relevant to Cas and Heaven now in s12:

CASTIEL: If we can beat Raphael, we can end this! Just give me the weapons. BALTHAZAR: [ Laughs. ] Do you know what's funny about you? You actually believe that you can stop the fighting. It will never stop. My advice -- grab something valuable and fake your own death.

Heck I think Cas really knows this and accepts it now. Every time he’s ever tried to show the angels another way, they’d rather run to their own destruction than stop to listen to reason or even consider another way...

CASTIEL : [ To a threatening ANGEL. ] You're making a mistake. Please. There is another way. Brother, please. I don't want to hurt you. The ANGEL advances on CASTIEL. CASTIEL throws his knife into the ANGEL's chest. The ANGEL screams and vacates the body. CASTIEL: Why won't any of you listen?

(have I mentioned why “I did what I had to do” is absolutely the worst thing anyone can say on this show?)

But as soon as Raphael and Balthazar are dealt with, Cas boops off without so much as a how-de-do.

And Dean confronts Sam about his questionable moral choices. Sam KNOWS there’s something seriously wrong with him, but he does his best to turn Dean’s suspicions right back around on him... and Dean KNOWS he’s not getting straight answers out of Sam, but he just doesn’t know WHY.

So much of the outward circumstances bear a horrifying surface-level resemblance to what’s going on in s12, but... I was complaining at Lizbob about the fact there’s just TOO MUCH to meta on, comparing 6.03 to 12.18, and where everyone stands right now... so here have my quick summary notes from the chattybubble:

yeah... Sam is lying to Dean about pretty much everything, Cas hasn't been around and isn't answering Sam and Dean's prayers for admittedly complicated reasons... (but back then Sam was soulless and Cas was responsible for that, and both of them were trying to avoid telling Dean about the Bigger Picture Plan) Sam with the Alphas and his mission with the Campbells, which he didn't know enough about to really give Dean any info about anyway... *at least the Crowley parts of it* And Cas was trying to avoid telling Dean about the truth of his plans to win the war in Heaven Because he'd been trying to keep Dean out of it from the start, and he's already in far too deep to back out now... It's all just a mess. But with Sam now in s12 keeping secrets from Dean about the MoL (even if he doesn't know enough about their full plans to really be useful to Dean) And Cas off in Heaven, not answering Dean's calls because he's trying to fix the problem without involving Dean... *SCREAMS FOR 84 YEARS*

But as similar as it is, they're all starting from very different points, which bodes well... or at least better...

Sam is in full possession of his soul and therefore a sense of human morality so yay

Cas has a FAR more “human” grounding in the world and isn’t resorting to shady desperate deals to stop the apocalypse

Cas isn’t even really working behind Dean’s back, they’re all truly working toward the same objective. He returned to heaven hoping to give them ALL an advantage in stopping Dagon and finding Kelly.

(which makes it all the more worrisome that Cas hasn’t been in touch now)

Dean is operating from a mindset where he knows Cas is “on their side” and he’s trying his damnedest to remember that Cas understands he’s part of their family and Dean’s hoping like hell that he’ll actually come back home. It’s an entirely different sort of worry than back in s6...

So much has happened between 6.03 and 12.18. EVERYTHING but the surface-level trappings are completely different now. The narrative demands a better ending...

(and this is why speculation is practically impossible, because everything under the surface is different now, and looking to the past for clues about The Future-- see what I did there? The Future is 12.19-- is practically impossible...

[mittensmorgul]

1.16, and the return to the demon mytharc. Meg summons demons, Sam suspects something fishy with her, and Dean’s the one doing all the research.

As hard as John had tried to keep them out of the hunt for The Demon That Killed Mary, the demons have conspired to drag Sam and Dean back into their business. Dean finds the connection that all the daeva victims are connected to Lawrence, Kansas, and they call John in to help.

So here’s where I just copy/paste a huge chunk of dialogue relevant to s12, with footnotes!:

SAM: I know. I’m just sayin’, what if we did? What if this whole thing was over tonight? Man, I’d sleep for a month. Go back to school—be a person again. DEAN: You wanna go back to school? SAM: Yeah, once we’re done huntin’ the thing. DEAN: Huh. SAM: Why, is there somethin’ wrong with that? DEAN: No. No, it’s, uh, great. Good for you. SAM: I mean, what are you gonna do when it’s all over? DEAN: It’s never gonna be over. There’s gonna be others. There’s always gonna be somethin’ to hunt. SAM: But there’s got to be somethin’ that you want for yourself— DEAN: Yeah, I don’t want you to leave the second this thing’s over, Sam. SAM: Dude, what’s your problem?  DEAN: Why do you think I drag you everywhere? Huh? I mean, why do you think I came and got you at Stanford in the first place? SAM: ‘Cause Dad was in trouble. ‘Cause you wanted to find the thing that killed Mom. DEAN: Yes, that, but it’s more than that, man.  You and me and Dad—I mean, I want us….I want us to be together again. I want us to be a family again. SAM: Dean, we are a family. I’d do anything for you. But things will never be the way they were before.  DEAN: (sadly) Could be. SAM: I don’t want them to be. I'm not gonna live this life forever. Dean, when this is all over, you’re gonna have to let me go my own way.

So to Sam, being a hunter isn’t “being a person.” To him, it’s giving up something he believes is essential to humanity. He’s fine with it as long as it’s in service of his own personal revenge mission, but once that’s finished he doesn’t feel any reason to keep sacrificing his own life in service to hunting, to saving others. It’s not a calling to him like it is for Dean.

But to Dean, hunting is the central element of what family is to him. It’s the only way he knows how to relate to family, and it’s what’s always held them together. This gets explored more in 2.20, where in Dean’s djinn dream life without hunting he and Sam have nothing in common and hardly even know each other. It’s a sacrifice he’s willing to make on his own behalf, but NOT when he learns that everyone they’d ever saved had died in that world because they weren’t out there hunting. THAT’S one of Dean’s primary motivations to continue hunting. He really is about the Saving People, far more than Sam was back at the beginning. His motivation since childhood has been protecting people, starting with Sam himself. It’s a primary aspect of Dean’s personality, and he can’t just lay that aside.

But one thing he can do is let Sam go his own way... unless that way is dialing up this “finish the hunt” mentality dialed up to 11; to this “kill all the monsters and then we can be done” nonsense the MoL have tempted him with.

Fundamentally Sam does still want out. He wants his life back, whatever that means to him now. And like always, Dean’s going to support him as much as he can, until Sam goes too far.

MEG: I’m doing this for the same reasons you do what you do—loyalty. Love. Like the love you had for Mommy—and Jess.

Love and loyalty. Sounds like s12...

SAM: Dean, we should stick together. We’ll go after those demons— DEAN: Sam! Listen to me! We almost got Dad killed in there. Don’t you understand? They’re not gonna stop. They’re gonna try again. They’re gonna use us to get to him. I mean, Meg was right. Dad’s vulnerable when he’s with us. He—he’s stronger without us around.

Well, they change that tune in a few episodes, but for now... ouch.

[mittensmorgul]

Hi! So, does this mean that Sam has completed the first of the Trials for closing the gates of hell? Or does he have to intend to close them?

Hi there! I’ll start out with a few comments, and then I’ll try to answer this as best I can. First, I am in Downtown Migraineland right now. I apologize in advance for any weird incoherency in this reply…

(note from the future, i.e. nearly 4 hours after I started trying to piece this reply together: My migraine is gone, but this reply went into A LOT OF DETAIL about the parallels not only in this episode, but in all of s12. This ended up being really weird meta on what I think Dabb’s Grand Plan for the entire season is hinging on. IT IS LONG. Just a warning.)

I think a lot of s12 has been paralleling A LOT of the past, turning it inside out, applying it through a different lens or allowing characters to see these things from a different side, and resolving things in a better way.

That said, I think they’ve been referring back to the Demon Tablet Trials and the Angel Fall Spell (because the angel fall spell was a spell, not Trials. Metatron confirmed that). But all the elements of those things are being addressed in different ways, and paralleled to ~similar~ things happening in s12… I’m struggling to try and put this together in a linear narrative that even comes close to connecting all the dots. There’s SO MUCH going on in this episode, I’m not sure that’s really possible, but HECK I WILL TRY.

(second note from the future: this is about 3k long, so it’s going under a cut. THERE IS SO MUCH)

(i am typing this from the floor where I’m curled up around pictures of Andrew Dabb and Davy Perez while weeping gently)

(A/N: cut removed during the tumblr nippocalypse of 2018)

Let’s start our parallel journey with 8.14, Trial and Error. The episode that began with Dean reveling in his new room in the bunker, the fact he’s “nesting” (and one episode after he gloried in the shower room’s water pressure), where he glared daggers at Sam for tossing a gum wrapper on his floor while talking about how wonderful it was to live in a place with no weird stains or odd smells.

That ENTIRE script was flipped in the beginning of 12.15… Dean’s just covered in blood, sits right down on the furniture, drops Lucille (I’m calling it Lucille, but it’s got other relevant parallels I’ll get to in a sec…) on the library table while SAM is the one reacting to the “offense” that Dean’s presenting here– right down to the weird stains and gross smells.

*Necessary Digression #1

(aside to note that bit of siren he picked out of his hair sorta reminded me of Chuck pulling Castiel’s tooth out of his hair in 5.01… But those “back to back to back” hunts that Sam and Dean just got back from– a ghoul, a wraith, and a siren– ALSO HAVE HISTORY that really needs to be mentioned here…)

(see what I mean about this being impossible to address in a linear fashion?)

ghoul: 4.19. (written by Dabb fyi) Family/not family. that whole episode dealt with finding out about a deep family secret (the existence of Adam) that was all wrapped in a deceptive betrayal. Adam was already dead, being impersonated by a ghoul. Sam and Dean had been divided over whether to indoctrinated Adam into the hunting life for his own protection (Sam), or to keep him out of it entirely for his own protection (Dean). But in the end it was already too late. It had been a trap set for John, but Sam and Dean ended up tidying up the ghoul case that had led John to meet Adam’s mother in the first place. John had tried Dean’s approach (keeping Adam in the dark about the monsters for his own sake), and it hadn’t saved him. Frankly, if John HAD told Adam about the monsters, he might’ve been able to save himself.

6.10: Samuel attempts to feed Sam and Dean to a couple of ghouls (aah, the sweet bite of family betrayal)

6.16: Not exactly ghouls, but Bobby mentioned a “ghoul-wraith smorgasbord” as one of the unusual monster activity things that eventually led them to Eve. Also, that whole episode was about the monster inside (literally! Khan worm! possessed by monsters!) and family betrayal.

wraith: 5.11 (also written by Dabb): Sam and Dean get themselves committed to a mental hospital by telling the unvarnished truth about their lives (>.>) in order to help an old hunter friend of John’s. The wraith “poisons” both Sam and Dean, and even though they were perfectly “sane” when they entered the hospital, the wraith’s poison made them crazy.Made them fight against invisible monsters of their own mind’s creation. But Sam and Dean soon realized how they were being affected, fought through the illusions, and save themselves.

6.19: The “Jefferson Starships” that Eve was making (hybrid monsters combined of all sorts of different monster bits) had been part wraith. Dean let Eve DELIBERATELY bite/infect him with this monster mix because he’d already drunk the phoenix ash that would in turn poison HER. She just happened to be wearing Mary Winchester’s face while she did. Family (in a horrifically mutated fashion… basically a lie), monster possession. Dean finally turning the tables and turning HIMSELF into the weapon that killed Eve.

siren: 4.14. aah, the infamous siren episode. Love… and love. Deception, family betrayal, and a monster that feeds on lust. Dean believed (wrongly) that Sam had been infected, but really DEAN had been the one “seduced” by the siren– and his siren had not been a “hot chick.” It took Bobby interfering to slay the thing.

7.08: when Dean visits Sam and Becky at their apartment after their wedding, Dean accuses Sam of not acting like himself, and Becky gets defensive asking if Dean thinks she’s a witch, or a siren.

12.11: Sam tells Dean who’s lost his memories about some of the things they hunt, and Dean’s fascinated by the fact that sirens aren’t all “hot chicks” 

AND I AM REALLY DYING TO KNOW IF THAT BIT OF SIREN IN DEAN’S HAIR WAS A HOT CHICK OR A DARK HAIRED, BLUE EYE’D DUDE.

*/digression #1- back to the point… for now

So here’s a list of the other relevant bits of 8.14 that were addressed in 12.15:

Hellhound glasses: I think we can all agree that we have been waiting years to see these things again.

multiple people attacked by hellhounds. in 8.14 they’d all sold their souls though. in 12.15 NEITHER Gwen nor her dead boyfriend did. That hellhound was deliberately released as a distraction by Crowley’s idiot minions so they could figure out what he was up to (and they found Lucifer chained up in Crowley’s secret room there)

so these people were attacked for NO REASON. They were innocent. They didn’t deserve to be attacked and killed just because they happened to be existing there >.> (sort of like the random monsters the BMoL intend to exterminate don’t deserve to die just for existing… but I digress, and will digress back to this point again in a bit…)

the goal in 8.14 was for Dean to kill the hellhound to start the trials, but SAM was the one who managed it in the end. The goal in 12.15 was for Dean and Crowley to hunt the hellhound while Sam protected Gwen (driving her off to safety in Baby)… but in the end it fell to Sam to kill the beast

the hellhound in 8.14 HAD BEEN CROWLEY’S. It answered to him. Now the hellhound in 12.15 ONLY ANSWERED TO LUCIFER. Basically, the Alpha hellhound. And instead of fighting against Crowley, Dean’s fighting alongside him while they both discuss how much they’ve changed. They’ve both moved a little more toward center– to that grey area where they’re both a little good and both a little bad like Meg and Cas in 8.17, but also Dean and Crowley have “rubbed off all over each other >.>

BUT HERE IS A KEY DIFFERENCE! Yes, Sam killed the hellhound and saved the “girl of the week,” BUT instead of it being the catalyst for him to behind hiding stuff from dean (the damage of the hell trials), it becomes the catalyst for him BEING HONEST with Dean… INVERSION!

Also, thinking back to 12.14 where Sam killed the Alpha Vampire, he’s now also killed the “Alpha Hellhound.”

*Necessary Digression #2:

back to 6.19 for a quick moment. Eve, mother of all the monsters. But apparently God created Hellhounds but considered them a failed experiment that he tried to wipe out, only to have Lucifer keep one for himself and twist it into the entire lineage of hellhounds we know. I’m trying to puzzle through the lot of this, now that Mary is clearly being paralleled to Ramsey the Hellhound, which lizbob and I are discussing in the chattybubbles:

The theme of the season is clearly motherhoodhow does she relate to Mary though :PI mean the whole pregnant thing makes it sound omre like Kelly

mittensmorgulyeah… but Mary “birthed” the entire plot of the series in more than one waythough none of it was actually her fault (like it wasn’t actually ramsey’s fault that she was let out of her cage)she was just doing what hellhounds dowhen they’re masterless

elizabethrobertajonestrueAnd this is the whole attack dog thingmary, Dean AND Cas all get it

mittensmorgulI am having shades of Eve (since she died wearing Mary’s face)

[…] where we talked about God having created the Hellhounds…

then again, he kept trying to create “monsters” to keep the world in balance. Every Apex species needs something to keep it in checkI think “Eve” was his balance there, creating the monsters to balance humanity

elizabethrobertajonesYeahand 12x14 discussed that as wellhow they’d been in balance

And Dean had unknowingly been on Sam’s BMoL leash the entire episode. All those “back to back to back” hunts that Dean came back from covered in blood, wielding “his father’s weapon.”

*Necessary Digression #3– and yes I’m aware we’re still mid-digression #2… bear with me here:

Dean apparently clobbered those three monsters mentioned above with a barbed-wire wrapped baseball bat that he said “Dad loved this thing” or whatever. Yes, haha, a reference to Negan. But that blunt, bloody instrument was also a major parallel to early s8– when Dean came back from Purgatory (that he referred to as “pure”) COVERED in the blood of all sorts of monsters, while Sam remained “clean.” That baseball bat made a nice stand-in for Dean’s purgatory weapon, no?

Dean telling Sam about his time in Purgatory, describing it as 360 degree combat, cutting a bloody swath through every monster in the place…

And Sam hit a dog.

THIS IS EXACTLY WHERE WE ARE IN 12.14!!!

Sam is taking Dean out on all these bloody hunts and hiding stuff about the source here. Meanwhile Sam’s hanging out with a veterinarian (student… close enough), but instead of hitting the dog, THE DOG HIT HIM. Literally, jumped all over Baby.

So going right back to the beginning of s8, i.e. the part of the story where Sam and Dean began to think that they could change the entire world to make it “safer,” to stop the supernatural from even existing on Earth (by slamming the gates of hell, altering the entire balance of nature).

BUT THIS TIME IT’S HAPPENING IN A DIFFERENT WAY.

The BMoL are trying the same sort of cosmic adjustment, committing monster genocide in the name of “the greater good” that got Sam and Dean wrapped up in four years of “cosmic consequences” that they’re only NOW beginning to recover from.

Sam nearly dying, the angel fall, Cas losing his grace, shoving Gadreel down Sam’s gullet, Metatron destroying heaven, Dean taking on the Mark… right down the line to releasing the Darkness and then reconciling Amara and Chuck to balance and save the universe.

I mean, Dabb is just killing me with what he’s doing here. I’ve now been working on this reply for the last 3 hours…

mittensmorgulI am STILL working on my first ask message, where I’m tryin gto sort through ALL the pies he[’s got his fingers in…

elizabethrobertajonessort of belatedly realisinghe’s genuinely got a finger in ever freakin’ pie in the show

elizabethrobertajonesDabb JUST tying up his OWN loose endsis actually tidying up the ENTIRE show

mittensmorgulthis is a turducken wrapped in a piecaken wrapped in a croissookie

elizabethrobertajonesDabb era is season 4 - presenthahahahahais that your new Dabb era tag

mittensmorgulshould beto think i had reduced it to just a linzer torteit’s everything

elizabethrobertajonesyeah

mittensmorgulJust as I typed that, Rowena on screen said “It’s MEGA.”

*/digression #3

*back to digression #2

*actually, let’s end digression #2 here as well…

Imma try to stay on point from here on out. Let’s see how well I do…

This isn’t about restarting the trials. This isn’t about recreating the angel fall spell. This is all about going back to revisit these things that ended up being Cosmic Consequences™ level MISTAKES. Giving everyone a chance to face these things again, in a different way, and make better choices. They’re in the process of finding another way.

The last little bit of my chat with lizbob might give you an idea of where I think this season is headed, and it all boils down to love… and love. (edited a bit because REALLY LONG and rambly, and there was a lot of “yeah” and “huh” sorts of comments through here…):

elizabethrobertajones: Joshua seems nice and all but God related to him as a gardner just as he related to Metatron as a writer

mittensmorgul: after he locked up the darkness, he was trying to create that balance on his own, but he really lacked the finesse to do it properly

elizabethrobertajones: Hm. and the writing is controlling the narrative on a BIG scale

elizabethrobertajones: gardening, if you were controlling the world, would be clipping it into shape. like just tidying it up taking out some weeds. like say… eliminating all monsters

mittensmorgul: but if we’re about balance and finding better ways, and Chuck’s still talking to Joshua… now that he’s reunited with Amara maybe things CAN be better now?hopefully?

mittensmorgul: BUT CHUCK SAID THAT DEAN WAS THE ONE CARRYING THE STORY NOW

elizabethrobertajones: don’t know if Joshua is still talking to God :Pyeah

mittensmorgul: he put the earth in DEAN’S hands

elizabethrobertajones: Dean gets to decide what happens and he doesn’t approve >.>

mittensmorgul: Dean’s the gardener now. I think he likes the weeds

elizabethrobertajones: And he tends to the garden in the traditional ways which WORK and keep a good sort of peacehe relates to the weedsknows some dandelions can be pretty

mittensmorgul: he thinks he’s one of the weeds

elizabethrobertajones: no need to rip them ALL upyeah >.>poor Dean

mittensmorgul: heck, most of the “weeds” are food for the beesbalance

elizabethrobertajones: CAS SAW IT ALLback in 7x21the whole planit was perfect

mittensmorgul: yepAnd Chuck CONVENIENTLY left Cas out of his description to Dean about the world being left in his hands (and Sam’s)BUT CAS HADN’T FIGURED OUT HIS PLACE YETHe’s still struggling to figure it outBUT WE ALL KNOW HIS PLACE IS WITH THE WINCHESTERS

elizabethrobertajones: yeah

mittensmorgul: He’s the third piece of the triptych here

elizabethrobertajones: he loves themdone dealwell he needs a sense of HOMEand he’s already done the whole I love you thinglike

mittensmorgul: Dean’s the firewall, sam and cas are the two sides

elizabethrobertajones: what else needs to happen

mittensmorgul: love… and love

elizabethrobertajones: (marriage propsal)

mittensmorgul: yep

elizabethrobertajones: like the next big step :Phe’s already platonically embedded in the familywhat’s the next motivation to live with them and call them home if the question is STILL OPENAFTEr that

mittensmorgul: he’s still trying to figure out what family and FAMILY mean to himhence his trip back to heaven

So onward to Sam’s battle with the TRUTH, and how it relates to veterinarians and dogs he’s hit (or who have hit him).

Well, this time around, the dog hit HIM. The veterinarian knows part of the story. She knows the monsters are out there, but she very specifically does not know certain things… like… she thinks Crowley seemed “nice.” Pffft

BUT SHE ALSO STEPPED UP AND SAVED SAM in more ways than one. First her speech about honesty, and how it was her deception (that she loved her boyfriend) that had gotten him killed. If she’d only told him the truth, they wouldn’t have been out there camping together where the monster found them. Instead of just breaking his heart, she now feels like she has his blood on her hands, which is a far worse sort of guilt.

When she finally confessed the truth to Sam, she was able to take back her agency. She saved Sam, whacking the hellhound with the green cooler.

*gives props to the props* the green cooler saves the day! :P

Sam lost his glasses in this fight, too. He was fighting blind, against an invisible enemy he could only really see by following its tracks in the dust. 

And the episode ends in a tidy inversion of how it began. (pffft, tidy…)

SAM is now covered in blood, and Dean is clean.

Now Sam has his chance to “come clean” with Dean.

Sure, Dean doesn’t know everything yet, but the image is coming more into focus. Sam and Dean are getting closer to being on the same page here.

(also, Mick is in Sam’s phone as Frodo, while Mary had the MoL in hers as “hobbits.” I’m sensing a theme here)

Sam had been lying to Dean about where all their hunts were coming from, essentially leaving Dean in the “hellhound on a leash” role. But now that Sam has told him the truth, Dean can cut that leash. He’s not just the attack dog anymore.

There may still be truths that need to come out, but at least Sam and Dean are nearly back to a level playing field here:

Dean: What do you want me say? Do I like it? No. Do I trust them? Hell no. But you’re right. We work with people we don’t trust all the time. Hell, I just Liam Neeson’d it up with Crowley. So, if you wanna give this a shot, then fine. But the minute, and I mean the second, something feels off, we bail.

Kinda makes me wonder what Dean might feel was “off” enough to follow through…

Finding out Ketch killed Magda? Finding out the truth about the Colt? Learning about the Monster Genocide Agenda? Or maybe just seeing behind the curtain that Sam saw through about just how incompetent the MoL’s intel really is…

Dean’s already seen their “attack dog” in action (Ketch), and he was not impressed. Now that Dean’s been let off his leash and been given part of the truth like a PERSON with AGENCY, and is able to make his own choices based on the fact that their info is coming from the MoL, I wonder if he’ll start piecing all of those sketchy details together for himself.

I have a feeling he’s gonna have a BAD feeling right quick…