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floralmotif · 8 years ago

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Setups and parallels (12.15 meta and spoilers)

I’ve pretty much just watched the ep and a couple earlier episodes for context so if I’m retreading ground, sorry.

12.15 is pretty “by the book” and I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. When things are spread out for you in simple terms, it can be easier to see what’s been happening and what will happen based on the information given. (as long as they don’t pull as s10.)

This episode is very tight in that there isn’t much room for extra threads in terms of where the story is going. Not by Davy’s watch anyway. Another writer could change it up but probably not in any huge way. Davy seems to have received a lot of story notes or he knew of changes that were going to be happening to characters in the future so he set up information to the audience to make those changes and decisions make sense in the long run(even if they were unfavorable) You know, that thing that didn’t happen with enough backing for Crowley’s decisions in 12.13. This episode pretty much screams “we’re in for the long haul”. It also does an interesting job at pointing out the mental state of everyone at the moment. Again, I think this is to give a groundwork for what happens later on. This is an episode of setup and context.

More detailed info below.

Parallels for pretty much everyone abound. Davy is pretty good at using parallels to give density to his episodes without spending a lot of time explaining information. The parallels also tighten the story. When I say tighten, I mean there isn’t room for extra stuff after a certain point. The parallels make the story very centralized and everything sort of hones in when they’re used. They add density but also narrow the scope. It’s actually not bad at all when used correctly as long as you’re aiming for a centralized scope. It’s one of the reasons why Dean and Cas can’t have other long term love interests. The story is too tight and the parallels help build that to be the case. The best thing about them is that they tell us info we haven’t heard directly.

On that note, let’s start with the set up with Dean and Cas and Mary and Sam. These guys have been paired off since early in the season and it makes perfect sense. They’re paralleling S6 which calls for a betrayer. So we bring back a character who fulfills the same roll the betrayer did: To deconstruct a long held ideal for the purpose of rebuilding new ideals the audience can see on screen. Dean and Cas’ dynamic is crushed in a similar way Sam and Mary’s is crushed. The difference here is how Sam reacts to the betrayal. Unlike Dean, he still tries to maintain the initial “pedestal” that he put Mary on even after the betrayal is revealed and is in a way, refusing to construct or see a new ideal. He’s holding on to the old one because it sounds better on the surface, something people do in real life all the time (if you look closely, you can see part of the show’s message shining through). Dean gave Cas the benefit of the doubt, but when the betrayal was confirmed, the pedestal came down and only crumbled further until room for rebuilding was cleared with the old dust. Dean has the same reaction to Mary here but his pedestal was slowly crumbling even before the betrayal. Sam started losing his dynamic with Cas early on (”the boy with the demon blood”) and Dean did with Mary as well.

Sam didn’t have a reason to maintain a good connection with Cas when he betrayed them. By that point, Cas was basically Dean’s npc and while Sam cared for him, it was more tangential. He does have a reason with Mary though and that reason is why Dean is forced to keep a dynamic with her too. He can’t run away and keep back like he did from Cas (albeit not completely, even then). Sam gives Dean a push to listen and to consider different information to what he understands. He’s right in this case, but the exercise is necessary for his character. Even if this ends badly, Dean needs to learn to accept other people’s decisions and Sam needs to learn to accept his own. It’s a test for both of them. When this ends, Sam will be wrong, but hopefully he will have learned that being wrong doesn’t always mean the end of the world and I’m guessing some aspect of the new episodes will give him something to be right about as well. Something Dean won’t approve of initially. Yay more parallels!

Throughout this episode Sam and Mary and Dean and Cas are given parallels. Dean pretty much entirely interacts with Cas directly(even on speaker, he calls Cas) and Sam interacts with the BMol and Mary. They also are given further parallels with who they interact with in this episode: Dean is given supernatural characters and Sam is given primarily humans. Dean is also given a Cas mirror and Sam is given a Mary mirror in the forms of Crowley and Gwen respectively, and just like Crowley is an “anti-Cas”, Gwen is an “anti-Mary”..

Gwen actually gives the audience some interesting information about Mary in relation to Sam and to this season’s use of opposing parallels for characters. Gwen in an “Anti-Mary”. In 4.03 we learn about Mary’s deal with Azazel to save John. We also learn about Mary’s apparent desire to get out. I do believe she still has that desire in s12, just like Sam does, but also like Sam, she has resigned to the idea that she’s good at it and can’t get away from it. I think both her and Sam see the BMoL as their only ticket out and want to believe that that thought process is good because it serves their goals and ideals. Another thing people do a lot in real life. In this case their motivation makes sense because as Cas points out in 4.03: “You realize, if you do alter the future; your father, you, Sam, you’ll never become hunters. And all those people that you saved, they’ll die.” Sam and Mary see the BMoL as a way to silence the lambs so they and the world can live in the way they believe is “normal”.

Gwen also wants to get out but in a different way. She wanted away from Marcus. She had an opportunity to get away but she couldn’t bring herself to tell Marcus. Mary was staying in but she didn’t tell John. Both characters were being proposed to. One wanted the white picket fence or thought she did, and one didn’t. Gwen didn’t love Marcus as much, and Mary did. As the audience, and in a way for Sam, we get information saying that Mary is better than Gwen. She really did love John and she really does love her boys. Gwen lives at the end of the episode. Even though she wished death on her boyfriend and couldn’t bring herself to tell him of her thoughts, she still lived. What does that mean for other characters? I still don’t think Mary will last the season (not in the capacity she has anyway) and this scene made me wonder about that further. It also makes a statement about how Sam confronts humans and their issues. Sam and Gwen save each other because the other is human. They also save each other to save themselves, both literally and metaphorically. Even after learning the nature of her transgression. In 5.03, Dean was already learning about things that went against the black and white world view back then. At the time, demon deals were just bad period and he contemplated stopping it for Mary, now they’re a thing that happens. Sam wasn’t there to see Mary’s deal but he’s here to hear of Gwen’s. I think Dean would probably have helped her too, but not without giving her a stern talking to. Sam doesn’t give saving her a second thought and honestly, leaving the Hell Hound alive probably wouldn’t have mattered much since she still had her programming. “Demons I get, people are crazy” Both Sam and Dean come to the rescue of Gwen and Mary despite their deals, but for different reasons and with different, almost opposing meaning. Dean came to save Mary already knowing about the deal, but because of Gwen and because of all the information surrounding Mary’s deal, we can infer that, that’s not all of what’s being focused on in his instance. It also tells us what the focus is for Sam. The audience is given further reminder of his thought process here. The show keeps reminding us of Dean and Sam’s different approaches and draws attention to how Dean and Sam have changed using each other as parallels.

Then we have Crowley. In some terms, I think Crowley’s issues here stem from a need to keep both he and Luci in the game. I find Crowley interesting and their “distant father to distant father” talk is kinda neat when written well. Some of Crowley’s actions seem to be a product of necessity but Davy at least piled some nice Crowlisms on to rule over the weirdness of 12.13. Him making th vessel the cage helps override some of the previous stupid. Thanks Davy. I’m also kind of glad to hear Crowley mention Gavin again just so we’re given more of reminder of how much he did care about having him around. It’s retroactive but it’s something.

Crowley is mostly a Cas mirror and Cas is often paralleled to John. Cas tends to be given fatherly storylines and Dean is given motherly ones... it’s still interesting and this season makes it really interesting. Anyway, in this episode, Dean is given Crowley to bounce off and makes a comment about saving Cas in the most pointed way imaginable. The show still likes to remind us of the parallels between Cas’ dynamic with Dean and Mary’s with Sam as the episode goes and it’s kind of glorious. You can reverse engineer a lot of what’s happening by taking one side and comparing it to the other. It’s one of the reasons I like the parallels here. They help me fill in blanks, almost like the parts of an algebra equation. Supernatural eps are actually a lot like math equations. If I can figure out an accurate algorithm, I’ll let y'all know.

Crowley standing in for Cas here kind of draws attention to how Cas and Dean have effected each other. They won’t admit it yet, but they’ve really rubbed off on each other. Dean now actively favors the truth and seeks it even when it hurts (unlike in 5.03, during an interaction with Cas), Dean now accepts aspects of the Supernatural and recognizes a gray area over a black and white “us vs them” mentality. Dean has begun crafting a new ideal that is his own because of Cas (season 7 explored the hell out of this), etc. Cas has become more human, and greatly with Dean’s influence. He understands regret, sadness, love and family. Cas even voices this over 12.10 and 12.12. Crowley has also learned to accept some of these aspects. In all ways, these characters have rubbed off on each other and it’s been good for everyone, as this episode points out with Gwen hugging Crowley (it had to be Crowley, he has a journey too) and Dean going back to save Gwen and give her the truth at her house. (those two things are combined for a reason. Association is fun).

Gwen’s hugging Crowley also sets up something for both he and Cas. By Sam saving Gwen because of her humanity, we can use her as a standin here. A human has embraced Crowley. He got a good gesture from doing something that favored humanity. This holds significance in his journey and probably means that he’ll embrace humanity in some way, eventually. Her embracing a Cas mirror also gives us some context for how humanity feels about Cas. They’re embracing him too, but like Crowley, Cas is afraid to fully embrace humanity back. He may love the Winchesters and especially Dean but his actions in the episode make it clear that he’s reluctant to fully embrace humanity, that he’s scared, that he still wants to make good with his birth family, but he will embrace them eventually. Gwen would have hugged Sam, otherwise.

This brings me to my last points. Miss Kelly and her baby. There actually isn’t much to go by here, but based on all the setup with embracing supernatural things, and Mary being wrong in this case and “a better way” and all that jazz, I’m pretty sure at least the baby will be fine, being alive wise. I’d like to say so will Kelly but sadly, she’s probably on the list. Unless she gets some characterization, she’s just screen time that could be dedicated to characters we already know. I know that sounds harsh, but we’re in a situation where either she’s going to stick around or not and the only way she’ll likely leave the baby is if she dies. Characterizing her could save her but I doubt they’ll do it. There’s only so much time they can dedicate each character and we have a lot of threads to go through this season. Trust me, I don’t like it and if they could give her a hidey-hole or something and have her willingly give the baby to someone else, that sounds like best case.

Before I started writing, I did scroll my feed a little and saw a couple of people being worried that Sam will kill Kelly because he killed the Hell Hound. I don’t think this is true. I think the Hell Hound being pregnant was more of a world thing rather than a story thing. If God killed most of the Hell Hounds, Lucifer would need a way to have more, since we know there are more. The Hell Hound being pregnant would give the reason for why he has so many. Also, the Hell Hound isn’t pregnant and the moment. If it was, it would be an oddly specific detail and the assessment would make more sense. Again, if I’m wrong, I’m wrong but even despite all this, the baby dying goes against the theme of the show at the moment. They could pull a Magda but that would be extremely anti-climactic and would betray all the buildup we’ve been given.

What they draw attention to matters. It’s set up. It can hurt but we’re given the contrast so the payoff has meaning.

One last thing:

Dear Editor of 4.03,

I saw what you did there with that insert of Deanna cutting bananas while Samual and Dean were arguing. I just wanted to let you know that i appreciate it and thought it was funny.

We editors gotta stick together.

Sincerely, Some lady on the internet

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