#you can tell i'm going through my episode notes because i am suddenly very chatty today. sorry

[incesthemes]

i am genuinely obsessed with how gordon stole the keys to the impala in bloodlust, because he simply had no logical support for that action. even eavesdropping on sam and dean's argument he could hear dean defending him, taking his side, and before that point too gordon's ideology was definitely winning over sam's. gordon taking the keys, then, displays a paranoia that really won't even fully actualize itself until croatoan.

because taking the keys means that gordon believes dean will side with sam. within the context of this episode that is exactly what happens, when gordon reveals he killed his sister and dean decides Fuck That, but on a larger scale it predicts how the rest of the season will go, too. at this point in the season dean is still caught between two ideologies, and he doesn't make his choice until croatoan, when his abstract duty vs sam conflict becomes real and he can no longer ponder it and must instead act. gordon knows who dean will side with before even dean knows himself—because dean spends the entire first half of the season desperately clinging to john (to his duty), trying to shove down his devotion to sam so that he can prepare himself to carry out his obligations and kill his brother.

and gordon alone knows what a futile effort it all is. he recognizes dean's devotion because he's an allegory for duty and so he understands too intimately all the ways dean is failing: duty or sam, gordon or sam, fate or sam. and gordon took the keys so that destiny can play out even when dean inevitably fails—so that they're too late to stop gordon, and so that they're too late to stop fate.