#the sam crowley rowena triad of ambition

[shallowseeker]

OKAY HERE WE GO

In a season that heavily hangs with issues of power dynamics and class, Sam meets his match in Rowena, and he immediately enters into a power struggle with her.

In his dogged pursuit TO FIX THE THING, Sam is becom like Magnus, like Mr. Cuthbert. In his trying to tame Rowena this season, he becomes the most MEN OF LETTERS he have ever seen him:

The Men of Letters is the masculine-stereotyped "Warlock," the match to the often feminine-stereotyped Witch.

They hoard knowledge and manipulate others to do their dirty work. (Importantly: Because they've been hurt, and because they're afraid.)

We think back to the line in Paint it Black:

OLIVETTE: Hoarding unbelievable power for their own amusement. Smug, self-righteous bastards. The Men of Letters. ... ROWENA: I see the truth, and it’s pathetic. You let these Men Of Letters pillage the greatest trove of magical secrets in the world and did nothing.

///

We see in The Werther Project what happens when a MoL goes "bad:"

///

A Man of Letters isn't just a class divide here; it's set up to be Rowena's natural enemy.

The MAN OF LETTERS one of Rowena's symbolic bulls. Sam is a "bull" to her flaming "matador."

But when faced with him, Rowena doesn't know quite what she wants to do. Kill the bull? Subdue the bull?

Ride the bull?

///

Rowena can't help but be intrigued.

And ah, look. It's the symbolic family diner... They are flanked by checkerboards, not dartboards. For better or worse, The family diner is the Family Diner for a reason. I think it's notable that they're meeting here and not there. (You'd expect them to meet in a more neutral SPN space, like *bar/Roadhouse of Good Pals.")

Anyhoo, immediately we see that Sam doesn't balk at Rowena's monstrosity. He isn't even taken aback by her darkest of motivations/emotions:

She certainly looks taken aback.

When she looks at him, she sees an ugliness.

(Crucially, it is what DRIVES this ugliness that will really wind up drawing her closer to Sam in the end).

///

For now, they start trying to impress each other with their brains.

Her initial instinct is to flutter and try to impress him.

///

When she reveals she can't read the book in its present form without a codex, Sam immediately starts his power play, shutting the book.

This forces her to parry, and parry she does!

Flawlessly:

ROWENA: "You're desperate. You can stop pretending you're not."

As they talk business, both of their eyebrows rise, interested despite trying not to be:

*eyebrow raise*

///

She talks of a witch who was victimized, Nadya:

And this further underlines what will become their power struggle. Sam will become his worst self, putting the boot on her neck, becoming the worst kind of MAN OF LETTERS.

///

Later, Sam calls her, and she can't help it, but she's excited. She's quick to match brains with him, and what leaks out?

Her desperate need for friends that challenge her.

And he's intrigued, too, but the lure of their mutual dark ambition.

"Great. Thanks."

Sensing a GOODBYE, Rowena is startled to discover that she doesn't want him to hang up. (Rowena is, at heart, a loser who has to struggle making friends.)

She stammers, then she practically engages in a bit of HAIR TWIRLING HERE:

He shuts her down: "I'll take my chances."

She scoffs, disappointed.

///

Ultimately, she can't resist trying to goad and challenge Sam—to "Toro, Toro" him and try to tame what he represents.

We see Crowley do this, too. His play is to goad and mouth off, especially when he's bitten off more than he can chew and is trying to convince everyone that he's "the top in the relationship."

///

As for the rest of the episodes...

Sam's subconscious knows that witchcraft can be incredibly evil, but he can't help want to strive for ambition, for power, for hidden knowledge, for EVERYTHING. Sam is like a Solomonari in this way. The SCHOLOMONAR. (Tradition says they became the Devil's students, either being instructed by him, or becoming a servant to his commands It's actually a bit different when you get deeper,but that's at least the Westernized version of it.)

As Dean longs for a "simple" world of 24/7-360 total war where he does warfare "all he's good for" without consequence, Sam longs for a world where he can think and strive to achieve ANYTHING without consequence.

A world where Sam can admire Rowena's and Mr. Cuthbert's brains without feeling guilty:

ROWENA (figment): "I know what I'd said about your kind (Men of Letters), but oh. The man who came up with this? The craftsmanship of the box, the sadism of the spellwork... It's all so... deliciously baroque."

There is a direct line being drawn between Sam... and Magnus. (And Rowena, tangentially.)

In Sam's mindscape, he gets to do what he feels he is good for: the pursuit of knowledge. Dean is the ultimate soldier without the need for decision-making, and Sam wants to be the ultimate librarian without consequence.

With that in mind, he also wants to impress Rowena, to impress someone who's brain he found impressive:

He wants to crack a code with her. Together. To show her that he knows things, can figure out things.

But he's also in a (sexual) power struggle with her. Thus, the need for witch-killing bullets... and to see her in chains.

[shallowseeker]

It's so interesting too, that in sundering themselves from their humble backgrounds, Crowley and Rowena mirror that which was inflicted on them, trying to become their oppressors (a Godstiel theme, if you care):

In Hell, Crowley is a king who commands no respect and begets no real loyalty. He's become a classist bastard. Dark ages-mentality.

Along with Rowena, Crowley inflicts pain on the ones "beneath" him, trampling the rebellious demons, especially the ones that stand up for "equal pay for equal work."

///

And it's not exactly as Crowley tells Sam at the end of s10—a long con to "change" Hell for the better.

That's a half-truth Crowley is using to make himself feel better.

A LOT of Crowley's behavior has been shown to be flagrant, for his own amusement to satisfy his own pain and loneliness. We got to see that all season long. Even before Rowena showed!

This line is intended to appeal to Sam and soothe Crowley's deeply wounded humanity. It's another version of "for the greater good."

Sam also uses things like this to pad his own wounded humanity.

///

In Girls, Girls, Girls, Crowley insists that "human trafficking is tacky," which is another form of padding to protect his pride. This helps Crowley look away from reality. He did the same, trafficking Dean to Cain, as Randy trafficked Claire to Randy in order to get a stronghold against his enemies/debt.

Most importantly, Crowley is looking away from the fact that his clients are all selling their souls, that his Hell-workers have already sold theirs.

But most importantly, he's looking away from the fact that he trafficked himself. That's how he got here. Crowley, like Rowena, was dealt a horrible hand.

It's as in 10x21:

STYNES: There's always profit to be made from desperation.

///

And it's no accident that s10 dead-ends in themes of Frankenstein.

Crowley wanted to rule over Hell, but in Demon Dean, he wanted to patchwork someone together who could "see what he sees, feel what he feels."

Dean becomes Crowley's very own Nick the SIren, an immature combination of all things familiar, someone "just like me!"

And when Dean fled to Anne-Marie, to his "humanity," Crowley was gob-smacked. "That's someone the old you would fall for," he says. Spoiler alert: Dean was falling for her. Anne-Marie is, in essence, a stand-in for Dean's humanity.

Dean and Anne-Marie linger in the spectre of Daniel and Adina, Adina resembling Anne-Marie AND Dean, wanting to go "somewhere else," and Daniel like Cain in: "just wanting to be left alone." (It's no wonder, then, that it is Crowley who kills Adina.)

Dean was supposed to be Crowley's perfect Hell-"Queen," someone just like him. But Dean wasn't a queen. He wasn't a lot of things people wanted him to be.

Not what John wanted, not what God wanted.

Dean wasn't even a proper knight. As much as Cain pegged him for a mirror, as being "just like Cain himself," Dean didn't do ANYTHING Cain predicted because Cain, like Chuck, like the audience, has got Dean dead wrong.

Dean is Dean.

He's not John. He's not Crowley, and he sure as Hell isn't Cain.

///

Next,

Let's note that in 10x21, a girl was killed and her EYES were taken. This is emphasized for many reasons.

But in a big way, this blindness mirrors Demon Dean himself. His "pretty black peepers." Crowley said to him, "See what I see, feel what I feel."

These themes swirl around the whole season because as Dean is reckoning with what Crowley did to him, Crowley is reckoning with his own life.

What Rowena did to him. With his original, terrible, abusive human life. With his own demon deal.

To Crowley, it seemed like Dean could be the answer, the balm to his boredom, to his lack of purpose and, like with Amara being wounded by Chuck, a Holy tourniquet to that core wound left in Crowley by Rowena.

///

Aside/// Dean is more successful than Crowley:

Crowley gets much of his kingdom through MOC!Dean's battle prowess/defeat of Abbadon. Dean's sacrifices are the foundation of Crowley's current kingdom and ability to succeed.

There's an off-key parallel with Sam here. Dean's sacrifices in many ways enabled Sam to go to college and have a chance to succeed.

Even now, Sam gets a lot of friendship and love by proxy through Dean's preexisting, strongly forged connections. In season 10, we see Sam at his worst: Sam manipulates others via the loyalty Dean has earned.

Sam's (and Rowena's and Crowley's) lack of social grace and inability to make friends stand in stark contrast to characters like Dean. Sam, Rowena, and Crowley feel like outsiders, and they can't reckon with why. Even getting power and status doesn't seem to help them, and that frustrates them all!

SPN has plenty of other outsiders, sure. But I get the sense that Sam, Crowley, and Rowena struggle more than others do.

Even with awkward characters like Cas, people seem to follow him even when he doesn't want them to. People don't naturally follow Sam, (and actually, it's even more complicated than that—he's afraid of leading). Sam really has to work on it with the AU hunters.

By comparision, Dean, Mary, Cas, and Jack, all characters with big hearts, seem effortlessly able to form these deep connections. They don't seem to need recipes or a rulebook for "How to Win Friends and Influence."

(Aside/// It doesn't save big-hearted characters from getting duped, of course, and respectively, Cas and Dean are fresh off being manipulated by Metatron and Crowley!)

///

But anyway, Crowley wants to be top dog, and it's a losing battle.

Crowley denigrates those who remain loyal to him, calling them stupid and useless, and one wonders if this is what Crowley heard daily after his mother left and he went into the workhouse?

As a leader, it's not a good look for Crowley, and it's shown that his behavior actually makes him a weaker king, not a stronger one. He becomes paranoid that their loyalty is cheap and that they'd betray him the first chance they get.

And well. He's right.

Interestingly, it's this that Sam senses in him—this that Sam hates. It's a self-hatred, too. It's about the rigged game, maestro!

///

Rowena hates what Sam represents; Sam hates what Crowley represents

Rowena hates The Men of Letters. At first, spitting on Sam and Dean is a big "fuck you" to the upper class.

So, too, does Sam spit on Crowley as emblematic of Hell, as emblematic of the thing that had tried to lure Sam in as a "boy-king," a promise of power but with the harsh reality of only being needed ONLY for his parts (meat suit).

Sam beats on Crowley because he can't beat on Ruby, or on Lucifer, or on John. Because (and Sam's not exactly wrong!), "because Crowley has it coming."

Crowley killed their loved ones (Sarah, etc). Then he duped Dean and dangled him in front of Cain as cannon fodder for his war.

(But it isn't all Crowley's fault! It's the system of Hell at fault.)

///

And the Crowley-Metatron parallels are delicious, too...

VS

Metaron duped Cas and used him as cannon fodder for his war. Then Metatron ordered their loves ones (Kevin) to be killed.

(But it isn't all Metatron's fault. It's the system of Heaven.)

///

They're ALL in Hell, in one way or another. In a sense, they're climbing down off the rack to stick it to perfect scapegoats (monsters, demons, whatever) who "have it coming."

Metatron and Crowley are also intrinsically linked. They both have extremely UGLY family wounds, and they're slowly falling towards their own humanity.

///

Preying on desperation isn't just a demon thing:

You know the ruse: finding vulnerable people and preying on them by promising them either protection or something to protect their families.

Like Cas preyed on Jimmy, like Dean manipulated Kevin emotionally, like Metatron preyed on Cas, like Crowley dangled Dean in front of Cain then used him as a Hell-worker, like Randy swooped in on Claire, like Rowena is trying to prey on Crowley.

YET. Sam doesn't want to admit that he's done the same! He swooped in on Lester when he was at his lowest in order to manipulate him, like Sam's using Charlie's love for Dean to get her to go whole-hog into a dangerous mission.)

///

The backdrop of forgiveness:

Interesting then, that you have this whole backdrop of forgiveness: Claire forgiving Randy, Dean forgiving Crowley, Claire forgiving her mom, Cole forgiving Dean, Claire forgiving Cas.

Crowley laments that Rowena is a liar, and Dean frankly calls him out about lying to him and setting him up to be the fall-boy with the Mark, "guess it runs in the family."

Cas laments that he can't put Claire in danger, and she calls him out too, "Anything else, you mean."

But it's not THAT simple either! Even "virtuous, forgiving" characters like Dean and Claire are still spiraling down into hunting, and Cas is still eagerly sticking his knife into low-level demon-soldiers.

No one's hands are clean, not even those who symbolize forgiveness and change. It's so messy!

///

It's so interesting, then. How Sam and Rowena mirror each other more directly.

They can't seem to forgive anything. Because they can't bear, in all of their stalwart perfectionism, to really look at themselves.

Sam can't forgive Crowley. He can't forgive himself.

Sam goes through the motions of "a team effort" with Charlie and Cas, but like Rowena, he trades more easily in the business of selective truths and manipulation.

And that's a big thing, isn't it? Sam, Rowena, and Crowley are alike in this manner.

They want people beside them to assuage their own wounds.

They tend to rule in fits of misguided ruthlessness and subterfuge to get people into positions where they can use them, as they themselves have been used. They struggle out from under the boot...

Rowena can't forgive the entire world for being rigged.

Neither can Sam.

He couldn't be further than Claire Novak this season. But can we blame Sam? Let's step back for a sec and cut him some slack:

Sarah Blake in season 8. That was like two seconds ago for Sam. She was killed right in front of Sam BY Crowley. To think this is ONLY about Dean runs the risk of oversimplifying Sam. (And yeah, Sam could've tried harder to save the Trans fam, but let's not forget that Crowley was who he had to save them from.)

His need for vengeance shouldn't come as a surprise, and I don't think it should be simplified to "homophobia" either, like I sometimes see.

CROWLEY: Well, I think the people you save, they're how you justify your pathetic little lives. The alcoholism, the collateral damage, the pain you've caused – the one thing that allows you to sleep at night, the one thing is knowing that these folks are out there, still out there happy and healthy because of you, you great, big, bloody heroes! They're your life's work, and I'm going to rip it apart piece by piece because I can, because you can't stop me, and because when they're all gone, what will you have left?

This is a very Luciferian comment by Crowley, and it's interesting to how very like Lucifer some of his actions can be. Lucifer says very similar dialogue to the above when he's posssessing Vince Vincente/rockstar.

///

It's another way that Rowena and Sam's plots are hopelessly intertwined.

Sam's hangups are about being squashed beneath the boot, but instead of finding another shoe, he's so afraid and so paranoid that he becomes the boot.

Dean and Cas are not immune to this. (Ahem, see Godstiel.) And perhasp Kevin Tran is to Dean as Charlie is to Sam. Miracle cure-Gadreel is a little bit like miracle-cure Book of the Damned, if you think about it... just on a smaller scale.

Sam tries to save his family not dissimilar to how his family saved him, by locking Deab up for detox, for doing "whatever it takes to save him."

But he's Sam, so it comes out... very Sam-like. On a big, destructive, and very CUNNING, pragmatic, and manipulative way. As we see in the early seasons, Sam is willing to go further. Into forbidden knowledge and outright human sacrifice.

///

Like Rowena, Sam WILL tend to save his own skin this season, and with them both, there are "substitute sacrifices" involved.

Symbolically, Oskar is a substitute sacrifice for them both. (And before you get too into the idea of Dean being "immune," it's the way Jack will later, unfortunately, be allowed to be a "substitute sacrifice/bomb" - re Dean's: "Thank you, Jack. " Dean also expresses relief that for once he and Sam won't be the ones sacrificing etc etc' ; war son stuff etc etc)

ANYWAY.

Other characters' struggle with this theme of class doesn't seem as prolonged and ever-present as what we see in Sam, Rowena, and Crowley.

Cas and Dean are, on the whole, more likely to be upset with systems and forgive the individuals caught up in it. (SEE: Dean forgives Crowley for selling him out, Claire forgives Randy for betraying her, and Cas has mercy on Metatron in s12).

That was a lot of words to say that Sam, Rowena, and Crowley are fundamentally linked and it's so tasty to me.

[shallowseeker]

Let me tell you about you, she says.

CHARLIE: Besides our hair, we got nothing in common.

ROWENA: Let me tell you about you.

///

Or rather... let me tell you about ME

///

Rowena's a loser. She doesn't fit in.

///

And the hard-scrabble life made Rowena nihilistic, emotionally untethered, and steeped in a kind of moral relativism that only stokes the fires of her cruelty.

Pain created this armor.

Rowena doesn't want to care about anything because caring hurts you and kills you. She doesn't want to die, not for principles or anything else. Her only cause is herself. She is the villain of the meta-world of STORY, because her meaning has been lost.

[shallowseeker]

Sam’s “destiny” was to be “king of the rats/riffraff”…and he didn’t really want that.

I don’t exactly have textual support for this but I suspect that Sam would have more readily embraced a Heavenly destiny, because it represents rising above his class background. Whereas Hell represents thriving in a place that is literally beneath him. (Well, it wouldn’t have been him per se…that was a bait and switch trick where he would have been “boy-king” in body only—a sham class rank built to entice his ego into said trap with the lure of false power. But the overall point stands!)

Don’t get me wrong; I support his rejection of Hell. In-text, it’s healthy to reject the nihilism and disinhibited-loss-of-free-will that Hell can tend to represent.

This is more a thought about how he originally associates it in his brain, I think. It’s an interesting thought! And now I’m thinking about how Rowena and Crowley view Hell as rising above…

[shallowseeker]

At first, Cas is sympathetic to Rowena.

He thinks WOW no wonder she's like THIS:

///

Then!

He actually seems to change his mind. He seems in near disbelief that Rowena doesn't love Crowley.

///

Cas has sympathy for Crowley's plight now:

Cas's brain begins to say: Maybe I had it backwards. Maybe Rowena is why HE is like THIS

///

And later with Rowena...

In the script, Cas invokes the LOVE OF A CHILD. SPECIFICALLY.

He gives her a sympathetic smile, because in this moment, he feels wiser than she. He's BEEN the ambitious company man, the military-minded man, COMPLETELY sundered from his own emotions.

He sees her nihilism with a level of understanding that Rowena probably couldn't even comprehend.

He tries to tell AU Michael something similar in, funnily enough, an episode titled Nihilism:

///

And yet!

In the next moment, Cas helps facilitate the sacrifice of "Rowena's child."

AUGH!

From Cas's POV, he's allowing the sacrifice of this man to prevent the losses of boys like the Styne kid, and to prevent Dean from murdering the world, and... it's a delicious bit of hypocrisy. This is Cas's old pattern of the greater good, the angelic soldier doing what he thinks is best in this moment. (Even if internally, like he told Sam, everything in him is screaming, "This is a mistake, Sam!")

And Rowena? Rowena wants her own freedom (from Sam's boot).

And Crowley? Crowley is enticed by revenge. As soon as Cas reveals that Rowena has to kill something she loves (and it's been shown by this point that Crowley already knows about Oskar), he says "I'm in."

And so. Crowley becomes his worst self again, killing innocents and going after Seth the way Lucifer went after humans:

Cas didn't know about "Seth," exactly... even if he knew of Oskar.

Crowley has been sitting on Oskar, waiting for just the right time to inflict on Rowena maximum pain and revenge. And he's so excited to watch her crumble.

He's a little bit like Lucifer at the end of season 13, so lacking in love that he delights in making people who love each other KILL each other.

Rejected by Rowena, Crowley goads her to kill the son she loves. Just like Lucifer, rejected by Jack, goads Jack to kill the father he loves:

///

Like Cas's war on Heaven/Raphael in season 6, and like Amara's destructive rampage against Chuck in season 11, most of Crowley's actions in season 10 have more to do with his family than Dean.

It's not as simple as, "I did it, all of it for you," or "all that I've done for you the past six months."

It digs even deeper. Cas becomes God-like to inflict punishment and a firm hand on Heaven, and Crowley becomes Luciferian to exact his revenge on Rowena.

///

Anyway, the point is! Cas starts to understand that maybe Crowley is what he is because of his tragic circumstances, and maybe he doesn't blame Crowley anymore.

You know, like how Rose was like SHE was because of her parental wound:

The thing is, that Rose and Crystal are like Dean and Crowley. Dean's unstable home life drove him to desperation, and Crowley led him straight to his own doom, straight to Cain.

And yeah, I've seen Dean compared to Rose before. But also... Crowley is also like Rose... and Crystal.

What Rowena did to Crowley led him into a workhouse. He died drunk in an alleyway, preyed upon by a demon.

///

And Sam feels like maybe he owes Dean, that it's his responsibility to help Dean because he benefited so much from Dean's sacrifices. Sam feels like he pushed Dean to the brink, just like this brother feels like he pushed his sister to the brink:

"So you didn't bother to tell the cops that, even when your sister turned up dead?"

"I was sort of the one who brought them out there in the first place."

///

There's so much complicated family stuff there!

(Not super coherent, but I had a lot of thoughts, okay?)

I think it definitely has implications for Chuck, too. This theme unites Crowley, Lucifer, and Chuck in a delicious, delicious way:

When Dean doesn't do what Chuck wants him to do, his manner of speaking mirrors how Crowley speaks to the rebellious Demon Dean, saying to Sam: invoking barbs like "crazy" and "stupid:"

While characters like Dean, Mary, and Cas occasionally go berserker and hurt the very things they were trying to protect, it is rarely out of spite.

Godstiel hurt Sam but started the season trying to protect Sam (rescuing him from the cage)!

Demon Dean turns on Sam, when Sam is the thing he's tried all his life to protect.

Mary didn't want to become the Natural Born Killer version herself, NBK!Mary... When she went to the Men of Letters, she wanted to put a stop to evil once and for all, protecting her children and giving them a free future.

Jack isn't like this either. When he learns he "isn't family," that he "isn't loved," he doesn't behave like Lucifer. He's more like Dean, throwing himself into the cause.

ANYWAY. I just think it's interesting.

[shallowseeker]

i know you call your long picture essays annoying but i wanted to say that even though they're a little hard to go through i enjoy them so so much! as a Samwena enjoyer, I have gone back to your Samwena essay with so much love and excitement over the past few day. Rowena and Sam natural enemies! Mr. Curthbart! Matador Rowena! There's so much that really stuck with me.

Oh, Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed this!

I had a lot of fun going through season 10 just for the Sam impressions, and I really do think that was the most "Crooked Man of Letters" mode Sam has ever been.

The parallels to Magnus/Mr. Cuthbert and how that connected to Rowena interested me much more this time around. Magnus has a lot of "moves" that paralleled Henry Winchester, a sort of "Dark Magician" motif in how he gives them the slip and pickpockets their weapons.

Aside// I've also been thinking about how closely Henry Winchester was aligned with Magnus/Mr. Cuthbert, even after Magnus was kicked out, and that's such an alarming thing for poor Henry. Henry is an idealist, but this shows that he's got a desperate, ruthless side--a willingness to break the rules.

I think it's a bit analogous to how the boys and Bobby worked with Crowley in s5, and how Cas worked with Crowley in s6, and how the boys continue to go to Crowley and Rowena for strategic initiatives throughout the run of the show. (Aside// It's funny where you think about the parallel of ambition with Sam-Rowena-Magnus-Crowley, because In a sense, Dean almost became part of Magnus's collection, and then he became part of Crowley's collection.)

[shallowseeker]

At some point, I remember Rowena having these...giant Macleod family paintings. As far as Rowena is concerned, that's a rich-people thing. But that's not who Rowena's family was.

Did Rowena have it painted....later?

///

In the finale, Sam is the same as Rowena.

As Sam lies dying, he's overshadowed by a gigantic Winchester family portrait. But that's not who Sam's family was. Hell, even if they'd had a portrait, it wouldn't have looked that...yuppity uppity.

It seems my theory of Sam photoshopping a bunch of shit to create a false narrative for Dean II grows stronger by the day...

[shallowseeker]

///

We saw that in her first episode (Girls, Girls, Girls). She was the almost-hero, gliding in to save the day...

Interesting that, on the heels of Dean's reversal power arc and hot off the heels of his rebellion against Hell, Rowena arrives over the specter of the matador taming the bull because she too is using unnatural means to tame the things that are naturally stronger than herself. (We'll see the matador very prominently in Dean's bar in Nihilism, too, btw.)

And yeah, Rowena's not quite a hero. She winds up sacrificing the girls to save her own skin.

But she does bust the girls out and even has intentions of sharing knowledge with them before she grows too impatient with them. (Funnily enough, she mirrors high-class disdain for their lack of intelligence, probably the same way people used to look down on her.)

She also takes the girls out for fine dining. Sam remarks that they're hunting someone with DEEP POCKETS, linking Rowena's storyline to class incredibly early in the show.

She wants to stick it to her enemies and drink the spoils of a lifestyle that was previously barred to her.

Oh. And she seems to hate demons. Especially johns and pimps.

///

In Paint it Black, we see that her hatred (and indeed most witches' hatred) for demons is well-known.

BUT.... Rowena's ambition overrides her hatred.

In parallel to season 4-Sam, Rowena turns to any means to gain more power to protect herself and feel safe. At this point, Rowena will be the Queen of anything if it gives her more power.

And so, she appears in Matador-Red:

She wants even more power, and Olivette is going to lead her to it.

But she learns of something worse than demons, worse than the filth she makes it her business to stamp out, and WORSE than the hunters who would hunt her and her son.

Here, she learns about the Men of Letters, and to Rowena, this is perhaps the ultimate form of class warfare.

The Men of Letters were a greedy, gentleman-ly class, "pillaging" what wasn't theirs.

//

Here, we can think about Billie's words in 15x18 (paraphrasing): "Everything I set out to tame."

That's what the Men of Letters is to Rowena.

They're not just threats to her son; here, they're emblematic of greedy upper-class monsters who are the very reason she smelled of filth and death in the first place.

///

And so... Rowena abandons her so-called community:

She goes the route of trying to fix the problem all on her own. This is perfectly in keeping with the storylines of some of the major characters in the series: Demon Blood Sam, Godstiel, MOC!Demon Dean, Natural Born Killer Mary, and soulless! Jack.

Perhaps that's why she wound up feeling like such a major character so quickly?

///

This is not just "mother knows best." Rowena groveled for years at the feet of the upper class, praying for SCRAPS. She's also trusted outsiders, and they betrayed her.

This is not petty.

This is born of her cruel life experiences.

Little does she know, the Winchesters aren't really Winchesters. They're Campbells! We'll see the Campbell "class" paired more often with characters of Scottish (Macleod) and Irish (Eileen Leahy) backgrounds.

But this little matador cannot tame this. Because Amara's power (the Mark), is at it's core, the same type of mettle Rowena herself is made of.

///

Her instinct after she loses is, at the core, very similar to that of the other main characters: "I'll find a way."

Paint it Black goes OUT OF ITS WAY to say "not witchy," "nothing witchy," and I've never been able to shake the idea that this episode is the strongest actual parallel to Rowena's backstory (and Fergus's father) that we have.

[shallowseeker]

I'm overjoyed that this goes so well with my Jack-Mary-Dean posts! What do you think about The Winchesters characters? Do you see Lata and Carlos as more leftward or rightward?

I'm not sure where Ada falls, but I suspect it's a wildly different direction, running parallel to wherever Rowena lives, probably something more from the top but a little turned towards Sam, representing heart AND the Sam-Crowley-Rowena triad of ambition.

Character parallels and modes of emotional operation

SAM + PROJECTION

You know, someone somewhere in the tags said that Sam projected onto Jack very, very hard, wanting desperately to see himself in him, even when Jack sometimes displayed a very different emotional life.

This is a fun Sam trait. Because Sam saw himself in "the monster," the monster was worth saving. (I don't necessarily judge that as an abnormal, spookily terrible thing. That's literally how empathy works.)

But interestingly, it's also why he's praying to Cas in the beginning of season 7.

SAM: He's not! He's in there somewhere, Dean. I know it. DEAN: No, you don't. SAM: No, I don't. But, look, I was pretty far gone sometimes myself, and never gave up on me.

Sam easily forgives Cas, just like he easily forgives John. Because deep down, he views them as fundamentally similar. He sees himself in them, and so they get big passes on moral things, whereas Dean and Mary, the ones who are supposed to support him in a certain way, do not.

To be fair, with Cas, Sam and Cas actually have a lot of parallel journeys, even translating to back-and-forth cinematography throughout the series. (Hunter Heroici & Our Little World come to mind.)

That's why it was so good for Cas to go with Sam in Peace of Mind to give him mentorship, and for Dean to go with Jack to try to tackle his emotional headspace.

//

THE "SAVE THE CAT" FAMILY LOVE STORY & PARALLEL JOURNEYS

THESE ARE CARVED IN THE LIBRARY ON THE "WORK TABLE" = It gives us a glimpse into each character's primary mode of emotional operation in their daily lives. It's also a little reminiscent of the coworkers' bar, but the library is specifically more of Sam's domain. The family business coworkers' space or the "legacy space," perhaps.

The final table reveals the parallel journeys of the characters: Sam and Cas on one side; Dean, Mary, and Jack more parallel-ish the other. Some lines are literally more parallel.

They're all a big giant love story, but it's in the movie-industry-Save the Cat / Blake Synder kinda way, a tapestry ranging from familial to sibling to parent to child to lover to friends to comrades to even groups of strangers.

(Even buddy stories are love stories in disguise, so the saying goes in the movie workshops. It's often about sacrifices and meeting in the middle, despite your differences and mistakes.)

///

WHERE WOULD OTHER CHARACTERS FALL?

Maybe in completely different directions, like more vertically oriented. Also, I think characters move around the table, depending on their psychological wounds of the moment. Nonetheless, they probably have particular quadrants of operation they stick to within the narrative.

(Movements: For example, I think Mary and Eileen are on the right with other heart characters, but they can also tend to go "lone wolf," more analogous to Castiel and later-John, who live more fully on the left.)

I suspect Henry Winchester would be on the left, too, over with Cas and Sam. He's a "thinking character" and seems stupidly courageous to the point of sacrifice. His idealism has the potential to get him into morally corrupt scenarios, as well.

Millie Winchester on the right, with the other heart characters.

//

The Campbells are harder. Probably because they tend to move with the modes of their circumstances more readily.

I'd put Gwen Campbell for sure on the right with Dean, a sensitive heart who "performs toughness" to disguise it.

Samuel Campbell could be on the left, right next to Mary's rightward name; a parallel to Cas-and-Jack. Samuel is still tragically trying so desperately to save her, even decades after her death.

Of course, Winchesters can move, too:

John could also be right next to Millie, who seemed to try to love him through his crises. (Or John could be next to Mary, of course, especially in the context of The Winchesters, where they actively work together as co-protectors/coworkers within the narrative.)

Another movement character: John could actually be on the right for a little while, with the hearts, running parallel with Millie, as he grows up without Henry.

///

For The Winchesters companion series, even though we didn't get very far into it, I mentally visualize Deanna Campbell as being someone who might sell her soul for Maggie, which is why she's cagey and missing for all of season 1.

Ergo Deanna on the right with the hearts but opposite Maggie Campbell, who lives on the left, very close to an intersection with Mary's journey.

Latika is an idealist, so I'd put her on the left, too, with other idealists.

And Carlos, on the right, with other "heart" characters.

[shallowseeker]

And so, Sam lures her via their mutual special interest:

AND GOD JUST LOOK AT HIM.

The self-satisfied strutting, the hands behind his back.

It's SUCH A MR. CUTHBERT POSE.

(It's also a Chuck pose.)

He's trying to manipulate her into doing what he feels is just.

He can't let her run off with the book, so he'll ensure she ONLY uses the "one good spell." He doesn't really want to take on Crowley, so this allows him to delay that.

GET TO WORK, he says.

///

He tries to tame her, and she, in turn, tries to tame him.

So it goes:

///

The argue like a... well. Like a couple.

They are free with their opinions and disagree vehemently on HOW to get the thing done.

(Aside//This reminds me just a bit of Dean and Cas at the onset of season 5, each feeling strangely free to air their actual grievances with one another.)

///

And we see them DELIGHT in shop-talk.

Rowena is continually impressed by people's awfulness:

Selfish. Smart.

And Sam is continually... a tyrant.

///

And amidst their shop-talk, Rowena can't help some instinctual, strangely domestic nagging at her awful husband:

This has the air of, "Dear? Don't forget the groceries."

///

This has the air of, "Dear. Behave."

///

Even as Sam puts his boot on her neck, she moves to knee him in the nuts:

*SLAM*

///

Later...

Rowena starts treating Sam exactly as he's been treating her.

NOW. MY WAY.

///

Pretty nice theme in the midst of what is essentially a reversal power arc, no?

///

And despite their intense struggle, yet their team-up continues too, and they friggin' snipe at one another. They are so fuckin' grouchy! It's like a spousal power struggle, really, with each of them continually goading one another to be better, stronger. My way, your way.

Here, her words echo his:

GET IT DONE.

///

So, the war continues.

AND SAM PARRIES:

She doesn't flinch when Sam waves around his fancy gun.

She remains... defiant.

SAM: "No more games, Rowena. Do the spell NOW."

She goads him., hoping that he, like the symbolic Bull will hurry up and just charge her already.

They are in a very intense game of volleyball or tennis. The ball is passing dangerously back and forth.

OKAY HERE WE GO

In a season that heavily hangs with issues of power dynamics and class, Sam meets his match in Rowena, and he immediately enters into a power struggle with her.

In his dogged pursuit TO FIX THE THING, Sam is becom like Magnus, like Mr. Cuthbert. In his trying to tame Rowena this season, he becomes the most MEN OF LETTERS he have ever seen him:

The Men of Letters is the masculine-stereotyped "Warlock," the match to the often feminine-stereotyped Witch.

They hoard knowledge and manipulate others to do their dirty work. (Importantly: Because they've been hurt, and because they're afraid.)

We think back to the line in Paint it Black:

OLIVETTE: Hoarding unbelievable power for their own amusement. Smug, self-righteous bastards. The Men of Letters. ... ROWENA: I see the truth, and it’s pathetic. You let these Men Of Letters pillage the greatest trove of magical secrets in the world and did nothing.

///

We see in The Werther Project what happens when a MoL goes "bad:"

///

A Man of Letters isn't just a class divide here; it's set up to be Rowena's natural enemy.

The MAN OF LETTERS one of Rowena's symbolic bulls. Sam is a "bull" to her flaming "matador."

But when faced with him, Rowena doesn't know quite what she wants to do. Kill the bull? Subdue the bull?

Ride the bull?

///

Rowena can't help but be intrigued.

And ah, look. It's the symbolic family diner... They are flanked by checkerboards, not dartboards. For better or worse, The family diner is the Family Diner for a reason. I think it's notable that they're meeting here and not there. (You'd expect them to meet in a more neutral SPN space, like *bar/Roadhouse of Good Pals.")

Anyhoo, immediately we see that Sam doesn't balk at Rowena's monstrosity. He isn't even taken aback by her darkest of motivations/emotions:

She certainly looks taken aback.

When she looks at him, she sees an ugliness.

(Crucially, it is what DRIVES this ugliness that will really wind up drawing her closer to Sam in the end).

///

For now, they start trying to impress each other with their brains.

Her initial instinct is to flutter and try to impress him.

///

When she reveals she can't read the book in its present form without a codex, Sam immediately starts his power play, shutting the book.

This forces her to parry, and parry she does!

Flawlessly:

ROWENA: "You're desperate. You can stop pretending you're not."

As they talk business, both of their eyebrows rise, interested despite trying not to be:

*eyebrow raise*

///

She talks of a witch who was victimized, Nadya:

And this further underlines what will become their power struggle. Sam will become his worst self, putting the boot on her neck, becoming the worst kind of MAN OF LETTERS.

///

Later, Sam calls her, and she can't help it, but she's excited. She's quick to match brains with him, and what leaks out?

Her desperate need for friends that challenge her.

And he's intrigued, too, but the lure of their mutual dark ambition.

"Great. Thanks."

Sensing a GOODBYE, Rowena is startled to discover that she doesn't want him to hang up. (Rowena is, at heart, a loser who has to struggle making friends.)

She stammers, then she practically engages in a bit of HAIR TWIRLING HERE:

He shuts her down: "I'll take my chances."

She scoffs, disappointed.

///

Ultimately, she can't resist trying to goad and challenge Sam—to "Toro, Toro" him and try to tame what he represents.

We see Crowley do this, too. His play is to goad and mouth off, especially when he's bitten off more than he can chew and is trying to convince everyone that he's "the top in the relationship."

///

As for the rest of the episodes...

Sam's subconscious knows that witchcraft can be incredibly evil, but he can't help want to strive for ambition, for power, for hidden knowledge, for EVERYTHING. Sam is like a Solomonari in this way. The SCHOLOMONAR. (Tradition says they became the Devil's students, either being instructed by him, or becoming a servant to his commands It's actually a bit different when you get deeper,but that's at least the Westernized version of it.)

As Dean longs for a "simple" world of 24/7-360 total war where he does warfare "all he's good for" without consequence, Sam longs for a world where he can think and strive to achieve ANYTHING without consequence.

A world where Sam can admire Rowena's and Mr. Cuthbert's brains without feeling guilty:

ROWENA (figment): "I know what I'd said about your kind (Men of Letters), but oh. The man who came up with this? The craftsmanship of the box, the sadism of the spellwork... It's all so... deliciously baroque."

There is a direct line being drawn between Sam... and Magnus. (And Rowena, tangentially.)

In Sam's mindscape, he gets to do what he feels he is good for: the pursuit of knowledge. Dean is the ultimate soldier without the need for decision-making, and Sam wants to be the ultimate librarian without consequence.

With that in mind, he also wants to impress Rowena, to impress someone who's brain he found impressive:

He wants to crack a code with her. Together. To show her that he knows things, can figure out things.

But he's also in a with sexual-power-struggle with her. Thus, the need for witch-killing bullets... and to see her in chains.

[shallowseeker]

ROWENA (sarcastically): Let's have a nice wee cup of tea... and negotiate.

*Sam's JAW juts forward aggressively, and he stands up straighter*

And holy Hell, she keeps making sexual and/or disrespectful filth-based barbs.

This keeps coming out MUTUALLY between them, even if they don't understand WHY it's coming out between them.

(*COUGH* See: Dean's sexual goading for Cas to be better/stronger in season 6: Dean's "Mom's making you limp?" and Cas's even, angry, "Figuratively." *COUGH*)

These power struggles are rooted in... stuff.

So, she negotiates. She'll take freedom, and the KEYS (the Codex).

Rowena is dressed in black when she's a prisoner because she's taking on a role like the symbolic darkness, the untameable.

(((Cas in the background: "Sam. This is a mistake.")))

///

And Rowena tries to outplay them, her oppressors, but in the end, she can't protect Oskar, only herself:

SAM: Then give it.

He is behaving like a Man of Letters, like Chuck a cruel God.

///

Sam, Crowley, and Cas subjugate her, each for their own reasons.

///

In the end, Rowena is akin The Darkness.

And she will not be contained.

And in the end, Dean is free of the mark, Amara is free from her cage, and Rowena too is free from her chains:

Advantage Rowena!

///

Funnily enough though, Dean is not actually free, per se. He has even LESS power than he had before as Demon Dean, when he was disinhibited. Now, Dean's free will is shackled to Amara.

And though Rowena will later suck up to Amara, she soon realizes that Amara's ways are too extreme even for her! In the class ambition/MacLeod theme: she's bitten off more than she can chew.

///

But back to Rowena and Sam. Their war (you guessed it) continues.

They meet again in The Bad Seed.

Emboldened with new power, Rowena's on a war path, trying to recruit disciples:

But even with power and status, Rowena just... isn't popular.

They say she's a loser, that she's looking for protection, that she has a lot of enemies, and that she doesn't have GUTS or CHOPS.

In her matador red, she starts bragging that she's got CHOPS. She killed her OWN SON, THE KING OF HELL, and she compelled an ANGEL to do it.

Bragging. Rights.

And... no one believes her. It's just little Raggedy Rowena telling tall tales again.

BOOM. She kills them.

///

Through this episode, her son (and his demons) continue coming after her!

///

Meanwhile, Sam works frantically, noting that both Crowley AND Metatron, the two "resource guys they tap" are off the grid.

But Cas is getting worse.

(CAS BRAIN: Ugh, what a horrible thing to wake up to...)

So, Sam is now feeling responsible for Cas's impending doom, and he's terrified that another of Dean's loved ones' deaths will soon be at his feet. (Both of them warned him to boot.)

So Sam AND Dean take the war to Rowena. (Even though tbf, Cas kinda deserved his curse.) They strong-arm a lesser witch just to track her down.

Game on.

OKAY HERE WE GO

In a season that heavily hangs with issues of power dynamics and class, Sam meets his match in Rowena, and he immediately enters into a power struggle with her.

In his dogged pursuit TO FIX THE THING, Sam is becom like Magnus, like Mr. Cuthbert. In his trying to tame Rowena this season, he becomes the most MEN OF LETTERS he have ever seen him:

The Men of Letters is the masculine-stereotyped "Warlock," the match to the often feminine-stereotyped Witch.

They hoard knowledge and manipulate others to do their dirty work. (Importantly: Because they've been hurt, and because they're afraid.)

We think back to the line in Paint it Black:

OLIVETTE: Hoarding unbelievable power for their own amusement. Smug, self-righteous bastards. The Men of Letters. ... ROWENA: I see the truth, and it’s pathetic. You let these Men Of Letters pillage the greatest trove of magical secrets in the world and did nothing.

///

We see in The Werther Project what happens when a MoL goes "bad:"

///

A Man of Letters isn't just a class divide here; it's set up to be Rowena's natural enemy.

The MAN OF LETTERS one of Rowena's symbolic bulls. Sam is a "bull" to her flaming "matador."

But when faced with him, Rowena doesn't know quite what she wants to do. Kill the bull? Subdue the bull?

Ride the bull?

///

Rowena can't help but be intrigued.

And ah, look. It's the symbolic family diner... They are flanked by checkerboards, not dartboards. For better or worse, The family diner is the Family Diner for a reason. I think it's notable that they're meeting here and not there. (You'd expect them to meet in a more neutral SPN space, like *bar/Roadhouse of Good Pals.")

Anyhoo, immediately we see that Sam doesn't balk at Rowena's monstrosity. He isn't even taken aback by her darkest of motivations/emotions:

She certainly looks taken aback.

When she looks at him, she sees an ugliness.

(Crucially, it is what DRIVES this ugliness that will really wind up drawing her closer to Sam in the end).

///

For now, they start trying to impress each other with their brains.

Her initial instinct is to flutter and try to impress him.

///

When she reveals she can't read the book in its present form without a codex, Sam immediately starts his power play, shutting the book.

This forces her to parry, and parry she does!

Flawlessly:

ROWENA: "You're desperate. You can stop pretending you're not."

As they talk business, both of their eyebrows rise, interested despite trying not to be:

*eyebrow raise*

///

She talks of a witch who was victimized, Nadya:

And this further underlines what will become their power struggle. Sam will become his worst self, putting the boot on her neck, becoming the worst kind of MAN OF LETTERS.

///

Later, Sam calls her, and she can't help it, but she's excited. She's quick to match brains with him, and what leaks out?

Her desperate need for friends that challenge her.

And he's intrigued, too, but the lure of their mutual dark ambition.

"Great. Thanks."

Sensing a GOODBYE, Rowena is startled to discover that she doesn't want him to hang up. (Rowena is, at heart, a loser who has to struggle making friends.)

She stammers, then she practically engages in a bit of HAIR TWIRLING HERE:

He shuts her down: "I'll take my chances."

She scoffs, disappointed.

///

Ultimately, she can't resist trying to goad and challenge Sam—to "Toro, Toro" him and try to tame what he represents.

We see Crowley do this, too. His play is to goad and mouth off, especially when he's bitten off more than he can chew and is trying to convince everyone that he's "the top in the relationship."

///

As for the rest of the episodes...

Sam's subconscious knows that witchcraft can be incredibly evil, but he can't help want to strive for ambition, for power, for hidden knowledge, for EVERYTHING. Sam is like a Solomonari in this way. The SCHOLOMONAR. (Tradition says they became the Devil's students, either being instructed by him, or becoming a servant to his commands It's actually a bit different when you get deeper,but that's at least the Westernized version of it.)

As Dean longs for a "simple" world of 24/7-360 total war where he does warfare "all he's good for" without consequence, Sam longs for a world where he can think and strive to achieve ANYTHING without consequence.

A world where Sam can admire Rowena's and Mr. Cuthbert's brains without feeling guilty:

ROWENA (figment): "I know what I'd said about your kind (Men of Letters), but oh. The man who came up with this? The craftsmanship of the box, the sadism of the spellwork... It's all so... deliciously baroque."

There is a direct line being drawn between Sam... and Magnus. (And Rowena, tangentially.)

In Sam's mindscape, he gets to do what he feels he is good for: the pursuit of knowledge. Dean is the ultimate soldier without the need for decision-making, and Sam wants to be the ultimate librarian without consequence.

With that in mind, he also wants to impress Rowena, to impress someone who's brain he found impressive:

He wants to crack a code with her. Together. To show her that he knows things, can figure out things.

But he's also in a with sexual-power-struggle with her. Thus, the need for witch-killing bullets... and to see her in chains.

[shallowseeker]

Last bit!

Sam will continue his war with Rowena, with a gun to her head:

And as Sam looks at the two people he doesn't want to disappoint the most...

(ASIDE/// Hey, there's a TOY SOLDIER in the upper left. How...interesting.)

....Sam PANICS and tries to throw his weight around:

Aside///SCREECHING:

It IS a soldier in the upper right...and a (panda) bear on the left.

Dean is a teddy bear at heart--he wants hugs, but he is a FIERCE protector of his family. And Cas is a steadfast soldier, too often used for his muscle.

Neither of them wanted to be here, and yet, here they are...

It's almost like they're caught up unwittingly(ish?) in the Samwena War (TM):

///

But here's the thing. Behind the soldier front, Cas is a "bear," too--precious to Dean. A fierce protector. A lover of hugs.

And as Cas begins to suffer, we see the prominent brown bear appear behind him. Cas's trucks are brown, like his coat is tan, because Cas's whole thing is "getting down to earth."

Dean's bear gets the black-white "panda" treatment because Dean's theme is the "emerging domain of morally GRAY, opposing the simple concept of Righteousness."

Dean thinks he's losing Cas again, and it's so sad. :( The scene is beautiful. If you look closely the blue-eyed mask, the brown bear, and the solder are all on the Cas side, flanked by HIGH scaffolding. And Dean's bear is prominent, but his stack of shipping pallets is much lower to the ground.

UGH. And Sam, too, has to wait with bated breath to see the outcome... if another death will be on his hands.

Note/// This is typeset with HEY, Hey, Hey, but it's actually a rapid-fire exhale of breaths, like h-ha-hah. A mini-panic attack.

And Dean is an affectionate guy, yeah. But he paws at Cas ways he doesn't paw at other people, grabbing at his face and sliding a hand down his thigh:

As Dean and Cas huddle together, seeing each other for the first time since season 8, without a curse or poisoned grace...

They're just relieved.

It's kind intimate, so Sam looks away. Part in respect, part in relief:

Rowena takes the opportunity to kick Sam in the nuts, so to speak. Sending his gun away and throwing him:

Sam gets thrown into the CLOWN mask. LOL. PERFECTION!

Aside/// Aw. Cas is very nearly passed out.

Rowena has the last laugh:

Advantage Rowena.

Meanwhile, Sam:

Sam got handed a big L.

///

Back at the bunker, the fight with Sam is forgotten, and Dean is just relieved, heartbroken, and guilty.

MEANWHILE, Sam rationalizes his loss to Rowena:

Oh, Sam.

////

We won't see her again till O Brother, Where Art Thou and The Devil in the Details, where having realized that power didn't actually fix her "outsider loser-girl problem," and unable to beat her oppressors, she reaches for even MORE power: Lucifer.

Again in shackles... but in (doomed) white (ish):

OKAY HERE WE GO

In a season that heavily hangs with issues of power dynamics and class, Sam meets his match in Rowena, and he immediately enters into a power struggle with her.

In his dogged pursuit TO FIX THE THING, Sam is becom like Magnus, like Mr. Cuthbert. In his trying to tame Rowena this season, he becomes the most MEN OF LETTERS he have ever seen him:

The Men of Letters is the masculine-stereotyped "Warlock," the match to the often feminine-stereotyped Witch.

They hoard knowledge and manipulate others to do their dirty work. (Importantly: Because they've been hurt, and because they're afraid.)

We think back to the line in Paint it Black:

OLIVETTE: Hoarding unbelievable power for their own amusement. Smug, self-righteous bastards. The Men of Letters. ... ROWENA: I see the truth, and it’s pathetic. You let these Men Of Letters pillage the greatest trove of magical secrets in the world and did nothing.

///

We see in The Werther Project what happens when a MoL goes "bad:"

///

A Man of Letters isn't just a class divide here; it's set up to be Rowena's natural enemy.

The MAN OF LETTERS one of Rowena's symbolic bulls. Sam is a "bull" to her flaming "matador."

But when faced with him, Rowena doesn't know quite what she wants to do. Kill the bull? Subdue the bull?

Ride the bull?

///

Rowena can't help but be intrigued.

And ah, look. It's the symbolic family diner... They are flanked by checkerboards, not dartboards. For better or worse, The family diner is the Family Diner for a reason. I think it's notable that they're meeting here and not there. (You'd expect them to meet in a more neutral SPN space, like *bar/Roadhouse of Good Pals.")

Anyhoo, immediately we see that Sam doesn't balk at Rowena's monstrosity. He isn't even taken aback by her darkest of motivations/emotions:

She certainly looks taken aback.

When she looks at him, she sees an ugliness.

(Crucially, it is what DRIVES this ugliness that will really wind up drawing her closer to Sam in the end).

///

For now, they start trying to impress each other with their brains.

Her initial instinct is to flutter and try to impress him.

///

When she reveals she can't read the book in its present form without a codex, Sam immediately starts his power play, shutting the book.

This forces her to parry, and parry she does!

Flawlessly:

ROWENA: "You're desperate. You can stop pretending you're not."

As they talk business, both of their eyebrows rise, interested despite trying not to be:

*eyebrow raise*

///

She talks of a witch who was victimized, Nadya:

And this further underlines what will become their power struggle. Sam will become his worst self, putting the boot on her neck, becoming the worst kind of MAN OF LETTERS.

///

Later, Sam calls her, and she can't help it, but she's excited. She's quick to match brains with him, and what leaks out?

Her desperate need for friends that challenge her.

And he's intrigued, too, but the lure of their mutual dark ambition.

"Great. Thanks."

Sensing a GOODBYE, Rowena is startled to discover that she doesn't want him to hang up. (Rowena is, at heart, a loser who has to struggle making friends.)

She stammers, then she practically engages in a bit of HAIR TWIRLING HERE:

He shuts her down: "I'll take my chances."

She scoffs, disappointed.

///

Ultimately, she can't resist trying to goad and challenge Sam—to "Toro, Toro" him and try to tame what he represents.

We see Crowley do this, too. His play is to goad and mouth off, especially when he's bitten off more than he can chew and is trying to convince everyone that he's "the top in the relationship."

///

As for the rest of the episodes...

Sam's subconscious knows that witchcraft can be incredibly evil, but he can't help want to strive for ambition, for power, for hidden knowledge, for EVERYTHING. Sam is like a Solomonari in this way. The SCHOLOMONAR. (Tradition says they became the Devil's students, either being instructed by him, or becoming a servant to his commands It's actually a bit different when you get deeper,but that's at least the Westernized version of it.)

As Dean longs for a "simple" world of 24/7-360 total war where he does warfare "all he's good for" without consequence, Sam longs for a world where he can think and strive to achieve ANYTHING without consequence.

A world where Sam can admire Rowena's and Mr. Cuthbert's brains without feeling guilty:

ROWENA (figment): "I know what I'd said about your kind (Men of Letters), but oh. The man who came up with this? The craftsmanship of the box, the sadism of the spellwork... It's all so... deliciously baroque."

There is a direct line being drawn between Sam... and Magnus. (And Rowena, tangentially.)

In Sam's mindscape, he gets to do what he feels he is good for: the pursuit of knowledge. Dean is the ultimate soldier without the need for decision-making, and Sam wants to be the ultimate librarian without consequence.

With that in mind, he also wants to impress Rowena, to impress someone who's brain he found impressive:

He wants to crack a code with her. Together. To show her that he knows things, can figure out things.

But he's also in a with sexual-power-struggle with her. Thus, the need for witch-killing bullets... and to see her in chains.

[shallowseeker]

Dean and Sam VS Rowena???

Here to thank here? Dean isn't. He's here... to clean up Sam's mess.

He may be facing off against Rowena, but he's not in the same THE SEXUAL POWER STRUGGLE with Rowena that Sam is.

Dean just wants to put things right.

*CLINK*

More shackles. Oh, here we fuckin' GO AGAIN.

....

.......................

Okay.

Annnnnnd... More. Sexual. Jabs.

And yes, innuendo is the tool of the underdogs and the demons—people in the "weak position."

But Rowena, in contrast to the women she burned, seems more exhilarated to be playing... whatever this game is with Sam.

And they...

...banter again.

And oh, she knows where to press. See, Sam wants Rowena to see that he's SMART. Now, here she is cooing that he's STUPID.

///

When things get too hot between Rowena and Sam, Dean has his try at subjugating Rowena.

(But even with all this, Dean's not the one in that kind of war with Rowena.)

And despite Dean's game of hardball, it won't work because no matter what bluster Dean throws her way about Crowley, Rowena KNOWS she's holding the actual high cards: CAS.

Advantage Rowena.

And she twists the knife even deeper. Oh, look Cas is going to DIE. And:

"What new Hell has Dean Winchester unleashed upon the world?"

And she, like Sam in the first episode of this season, is assigning unfair WEIGHT to Dean. But that's on purpose.

She's, like Heaven before her, completely sidestepping the HOST of other players involved. There's no mention of Crowley, who manipulated Dean into taking the mark, or the desperation of Sam, who worked with a whole slew of people to remove it.

She's certainly not looking at her own culpability.

But that's on purpose, because she's using what she's learned of Dean to try and manipulate him.

In an expert interrogation, she's read Dean, and she's stabbing at his twin fears: (1) losing Cas to madness and (2) feeling responsibility for the fate of the entire world.

///

Even in the car, the tension of the camera work is between Rowena and Sam:

And Sam is so... I don't know any other work for how he interacts except disproportionately pleased, especially with everything that's going on.

SAM. IS. PREENING. (At first.)

In true MacLeod fashion, she keeps trying to goad and annoy Sam. She wants a REACTION from him. This is her version of pigtail-pulling:

And then she TATTLES ON SAM, because she's continuing to wage her war with stunning precision:

ROWENA: "Surely you knew that Sam agreed to kill my son if I removed the Mark of Cain from your arm."

Ohhhh, Samuel. You're not a liiiiiiiiiiiiar, are you? Goodness me!

Rowena is the QUEEN of DISCORD.

And she is kicking Sam's ass even as she rides as his prisoner. As Sam brushes her under his boot, she works to saw off his whole damn foot.

///

They can't help but adore the challenge.

OKAY HERE WE GO

In a season that heavily hangs with issues of power dynamics and class, Sam meets his match in Rowena, and he immediately enters into a power struggle with her.

In his dogged pursuit TO FIX THE THING, Sam is becom like Magnus, like Mr. Cuthbert. In his trying to tame Rowena this season, he becomes the most MEN OF LETTERS he have ever seen him:

The Men of Letters is the masculine-stereotyped "Warlock," the match to the often feminine-stereotyped Witch.

They hoard knowledge and manipulate others to do their dirty work. (Importantly: Because they've been hurt, and because they're afraid.)

We think back to the line in Paint it Black:

OLIVETTE: Hoarding unbelievable power for their own amusement. Smug, self-righteous bastards. The Men of Letters. ... ROWENA: I see the truth, and it’s pathetic. You let these Men Of Letters pillage the greatest trove of magical secrets in the world and did nothing.

///

We see in The Werther Project what happens when a MoL goes "bad:"

///

A Man of Letters isn't just a class divide here; it's set up to be Rowena's natural enemy.

The MAN OF LETTERS one of Rowena's symbolic bulls. Sam is a "bull" to her flaming "matador."

But when faced with him, Rowena doesn't know quite what she wants to do. Kill the bull? Subdue the bull?

Ride the bull?

///

Rowena can't help but be intrigued.

And ah, look. It's the symbolic family diner... They are flanked by checkerboards, not dartboards. For better or worse, The family diner is the Family Diner for a reason. I think it's notable that they're meeting here and not there. (You'd expect them to meet in a more neutral SPN space, like *bar/Roadhouse of Good Pals.")

Anyhoo, immediately we see that Sam doesn't balk at Rowena's monstrosity. He isn't even taken aback by her darkest of motivations/emotions:

She certainly looks taken aback.

When she looks at him, she sees an ugliness.

(Crucially, it is what DRIVES this ugliness that will really wind up drawing her closer to Sam in the end).

///

For now, they start trying to impress each other with their brains.

Her initial instinct is to flutter and try to impress him.

///

When she reveals she can't read the book in its present form without a codex, Sam immediately starts his power play, shutting the book.

This forces her to parry, and parry she does!

Flawlessly:

ROWENA: "You're desperate. You can stop pretending you're not."

As they talk business, both of their eyebrows rise, interested despite trying not to be:

*eyebrow raise*

///

She talks of a witch who was victimized, Nadya:

And this further underlines what will become their power struggle. Sam will become his worst self, putting the boot on her neck, becoming the worst kind of MAN OF LETTERS.

///

Later, Sam calls her, and she can't help it, but she's excited. She's quick to match brains with him, and what leaks out?

Her desperate need for friends that challenge her.

And he's intrigued, too, but the lure of their mutual dark ambition.

"Great. Thanks."

Sensing a GOODBYE, Rowena is startled to discover that she doesn't want him to hang up. (Rowena is, at heart, a loser who has to struggle making friends.)

She stammers, then she practically engages in a bit of HAIR TWIRLING HERE:

He shuts her down: "I'll take my chances."

She scoffs, disappointed.

///

Ultimately, she can't resist trying to goad and challenge Sam—to "Toro, Toro" him and try to tame what he represents.

We see Crowley do this, too. His play is to goad and mouth off, especially when he's bitten off more than he can chew and is trying to convince everyone that he's "the top in the relationship."

///

As for the rest of the episodes...

Sam's subconscious knows that witchcraft can be incredibly evil, but he can't help want to strive for ambition, for power, for hidden knowledge, for EVERYTHING. Sam is like a Solomonari in this way. The SCHOLOMONAR. (Tradition says they became the Devil's students, either being instructed by him, or becoming a servant to his commands It's actually a bit different when you get deeper,but that's at least the Westernized version of it.)

As Dean longs for a "simple" world of 24/7-360 total war where he does warfare "all he's good for" without consequence, Sam longs for a world where he can think and strive to achieve ANYTHING without consequence.

A world where Sam can admire Rowena's and Mr. Cuthbert's brains without feeling guilty:

ROWENA (figment): "I know what I'd said about your kind (Men of Letters), but oh. The man who came up with this? The craftsmanship of the box, the sadism of the spellwork... It's all so... deliciously baroque."

There is a direct line being drawn between Sam... and Magnus. (And Rowena, tangentially.)

In Sam's mindscape, he gets to do what he feels he is good for: the pursuit of knowledge. Dean is the ultimate soldier without the need for decision-making, and Sam wants to be the ultimate librarian without consequence.

With that in mind, he also wants to impress Rowena, to impress someone who's brain he found impressive:

He wants to crack a code with her. Together. To show her that he knows things, can figure out things.

But he's also in a with sexual-power-struggle with her. Thus, the need for witch-killing bullets... and to see her in chains.