#either way he better give Milligan and Kate some answers

[nobodysdaydreams]

L.D. Curtain in Season 3 of the Mysterious Benedict Society:

[ckneal]

So, up until the last year, I was not actively involved in fandom on tumblr. All of my fan theories and fic ideas were created for the sole purpose of entertaining me and me alone. And as such, when I happened upon the midam and angel communities, I did experience a certain amount of culture shock when I found that some of the things that I had just taken for granted from the very first viewing of the show—didn’t even need to think about it, it just seemed to be right there—were contrary to the beliefs of the overall fandom. And today, I feel like airing out one of these for fun of it.

(And warning, this might be an unpopular take.)

Before discovering the midam community, I believed that Kate Milligan was aware of the existence of the supernatural and complicit in keeping Adam in the dark.

To be clear right off the bat, I am not purposing a Mary Winchester situation. I do not think that Kate was a hunter. But I do think that the chain of events that led to Adam’s conception may have had more in common with what Sam laid out at the beginning of Jump the Shark. I have two main reasons in thinking this.

The first reason, is simply this: John gave Kate his cellphone number. She just had it on hand when Adam decided he wanted to meet his dad twelve years down the line. That just seemed really weird. John Winchester is not exactly the stay-for-breakfast type, let alone the type to stay in contact with a one night stand in a backwater town. But you know who he DOES give his phone number out to? People who know that he’s a hunter, and who might recognize the signs of the paranormal and give him a call in the future. People he expects might lead to further cases.

The second reason is pertaining to the ghoul children. How did they know about Kate and Adam? John had not been to see Adam in a couple of years by the time of Adam’s death, and is implied to have been an infrequent visitor before that. Would the ghoul children have really been staking out the town for over two years before making their move? That seemed so implausible to me, personally, upon the first viewing of the show that I dismissed it outright, and with subsequent rewatches it seems more clear—from the way that the ghoul seems to blink and search for the answers every time Sam and Dean ask about Adam’s history, and with Denise when she asks if “Adam” would like his usual order—that, no, the ghouls had not been watching Adam and Kate at length because clearly the ghoul’s impersonation of Adam was not polished. Kate and Adam were killed by amateurs.

And, to me, the fact that they knew to go after Kate only made sense because, somehow, she was part of the hunt. Not as some nurse who stitched John back together after he hauled himself away from the scene of the crime either.

What I think happened, was this. The ghoul children said that their father was not a monster, and they were telling the truth. A monster named John Winchester came to town with all the motivation of an exterminator coming to take care of a cockroach infestation. He heard about a creepy crawly feeding on the dead, and harmless though the creature was, he was there to kill it. But remember the ghoul we later met in season 13. Ghouls aren’t always just weirdos hiding in the shadows with gore crusted onto their faces. They are perfectly logical beings, capable of being functional members of society, and I think that when John showed up, the ghouls’ father was able to get by in society, maybe changing faces every now and then, but definitely capable of going undetected. I think the reason the ghoul attracted attention at all was because he had two (or three—I still like to think there might have been three) children to support. The father himself might have been able to get by sparingly by munching on the same bit of corpse for months to keep his appearance consistent, but you can’t expect that kind of restraint from children. And maybe, building off that, the ghoul kept his children hidden, because who knows how their shapeshifting abilities translate when they’re young?

But I digress. I think the ghoul found out that John was there—perhaps even met John Winchester and just barely managed to keep his cool—and decided to switch tactics, and switch faces. I think the ghoul moved from feeding out of a cemetery to a hospital morgue. The morgue, of course, is more dangerous. There are a lot more people milling around all day and night, not to mention the security cameras, but the ghoul gets a job as a janitor, using their new face and name, and reasons to himself that it was just temporary until John Winchester left.

However, things became complicated. The ghoul had planned to pull this off by switching back and forth between two different faces, by eating from two different corpses, but at some point John connected the ghoul’s older persona to the case, went to the house, and found the stash. The ghoul’s children had only just managed to escape, and the ghoul was put on edge. He started to get sloppy in his panic. With few options, he makes the decision that he and his children will have to flee—but the fact still remains that there are four of them, and this hunter is stubborn. The further they can go before stopping to feed, the better their chances of getting away unfollowed. So, the ghoul, in his hospital persona, goes back to the hospital for one last food run. He tells his kids to stay put in the car, and stay below the windows. They may look like any ordinary kids, but he doesn’t want to take any chances. 

When he goes inside though, the ghoul is finally caught in the act, stuffing body parts into a black trash bag—no one would have thought twice about him hauling things off to the dumpsters. He would have been homefree, if Kate hadn’t walked in.

Meanwhile in the parking garage, the worst happens: John Winchester arrives in the impala. The ghoul children see him in the rearview mirror, and they recognize the man who had broken into their home, and crouch down deeper into the backseat of their own car, even as they start frantically whispering. Their dad told them to stay put, but he was in danger and they needed to warn him!

Inside the hospital, the ghoul had Kate tied to a chair, and he’s stuck holding a scalpel in hand, fighting a battle on the inside, because he is not a violent man. He’s just a single dad trying to take care his kids, and he’s always been so, so careful, but now he’s been caught. Instinct says to kill Kate. If she’s dead, she wont be able to give out any details that might somehow help the hunter find him. But on the other hand, he had been working at the hospital for weeks now, and he liked Kate. She was friendly, nice. They talked a lot—but that’s why she might know something that could help John find him, some detail the ghoul wouldn’t even remember sharing, but that a lunatic like John Winchester could hyper fixate on. You never knew what might give you away with hunters. . .

John barges in and finds them while the ghoul’s still agonizing over the decision—Kate seemingly roughed up with the ghoul standing there, poised to cut her throat, and it’s all over for the ghoul. He fights John as best as he can, slashing with the scalpel and biting with a savagery that he had always thought himself above in the past, but his kids were waiting for him. . .

And unbeknownst to John Winchester and the ghoul, there his kids were, watching from the air vent overhead, out of sight, the way their dad had always urged them to move when they were in danger. They saw the murder, they saw Kate, and they saw the officer, Joe Barton, show up to sweep the whole mess under the rug, never knowing that two (or three) witnesses were huddled there, waiting for everyone to leave so they could crawl away, because if they moved any sooner they would have likely given themselves away, the way that they were shaking.

And that’s why I think Kate knew. I think that Kate was there at the final showdown, or at least present enough during the case that the ghoul children would have seen her, and would have known to look for her as well as Joe Barton when they decided to take revenge. I think that they saw Adam, and the pictures of John their house, and they did the math.

I think that Kate made a mistake in keeping Adam ignorant--regardless of whether it was her idea or John’s (though I’m gonna be real with you guys, I always thought it was Kate’s; I think John would have thrown Adam in the back of the impala and driven him off in to a life and guns, alcoholism, and bloodshed in a heartbeat if it weren’t for Kate)--because she made the same mistake that Mary would have with her children, in thinking that if you aren’t part of this life, it can’t hurt you. She was wrong. 

[adammilligan]

I've been going through your adam milligan tag because I finally watched his comeback in season 15 and I just gotta say two things. one: you've got the best adam meta, it's seriously so satisfying. two: please talk about lucifer and adam in any context, in whatever stream of consciousness. I'd just love to see some feelings or dynamic explored because I feel like not having anything is such a wasted opportunity.

thank you! it took me a while to get around to this ask because...i’m me lmao but i’m glad you like my adam meta!! and okay lucifer and adam uh....let’s see here. i’ve made a post before about a distinct difference between lucifer and adam and how they handled the whole “god talk” thing with michael and how that highlights certain differences in their characters because, truthfully, adam and lucifer are really on opposite ends of the spectrum—you have a “daddy’s favorite” character versus a “good son” character, with a main difference being that adam wasn’t a good son for his father; no, he doesn’t give a shit about john. it was for his mom! he became an eagle scout and graduated high school with honors, and even his pre-med track mirrored his mother’s job because kate was a nurse. adam is reserved and very under-dramatic compared to the rest of the spn characters, and when you have a character as overly-dramatic and whiny as lucifer clash with someone like that, the results...well, they’d be about what you’d think they would be: a lot of arguing. 

a set of gifs that i’ve seen floating around is adam’s “family sucks” paralleled with lucifer’s “family blows,” which is interesting because it suggests that both of them have taken similar views on the whole “blood family” deal—that it’s not worth shit. this is again contrasted, though, by the way they handle it—lucifer acts like a child, makes himself out to be the victim in every situation (see: his talk with gabriel in apocalypse world), and overall just tries to make himself out to be this “good guy” compared to, say, au!michael and michael (back when he was telling everyone that michael was insane and that he was the better alternatve). adam, on the other hand, never makes himself out to be the victim and handles the situation regarding the winchesters after the cage with reason and an open ear. another interesting thing is that both of them asked for apologies from the family members that slighted them, but—again—this takes a divergence when you see how they handled it. i can’t really remember lucifer’s scenes all too well (he makes me cringe and i refuse to go back and watch him) but i do recall him going “team amara, go amara,” and locking himself in sam’s room blasting music until he got what he wanted, which was a talk with god/apology from god. ergo, he basically absolutely refused to cooperate until his terms were met. adam, on the other hand, simply asked for an apology and, even when he didn’t get one, didn’t hesitate to continue to help and even vouched for the winchesters to michael, displaying his ability to put aside his own feelings for the sake of something bigger (though i wish he would’ve been an asshole about it to them. just a little bit. cmon he actually deserves to apeshit and i’m not budging on this lmao). and, at the end of the episode, he was entirely ready to just walk out of there without having received an apology in any way, shape or form. 

as inherit the earth hasn’t come out yet, i’m not sure if we’re going to get any confirmation that lucifer might’ve tortured adam a bit down there before michael presumably fought him off and protected adam from him. however, seeing as lucifer hasn’t ever mentioned adam before, as of right now i’m of the belief that lucifer either didn’t notice that adam was down there (michael might’ve been shielding him all the way back in his own mind) or was too busy fighting michael to tell. lucifer’s the type who likes bringing shit up, right? so it wouldn’t be ooc for him to have slipped a line or two in about torturing the “winchesters’ baby brother” or whatever. nevertheless, i do think that if lucifer and adam were to meet face-to-face, there would be a little fear on adam’s part—while michael is someone he trusts, lucifer is not only a blatant reminder of the time he spent suffering in the cage but also an archangel who’s out for everyone’s blood, and adam isn’t stupid enough to think that just because he’s friends with one he’s invulnerable to them all. based on the fact that michael and lucifer were fighting for a while down there, it stands to reason that adam knows exactly what lucifer’s capable of and there would definitely be some wariness on his part—since we don’t know what happened down there, that wariness could vary from a reasonable fear to fear akin to sam’s trauma at lucifer’s hands. 

basically, there are some similarities that split into nothing but differences on adam and lucifer’s part, and i think that’s just because they’re such opposing characters: adam is literally everything lucifer’s not, and vice versa. inherit the earth could answer a lot of questions about what may or may not have actually happened in the cage, but we all know the writers: they probably won’t answer shit lmao.