1. Written by Sera Gamble, so expect crying or torturing, or both.
2. The show begins every season with a few main mythology episodes before it can proceed to funny and scary stand-alones. The end of every season is also heavily “mythological”.
3. Sitting in his wheelchair, Mr. Singer is a sorry sight; just two episodes back he would knock Dean out of his depression, but now he’s in a depressed state himself.
5. So Dean has nothing better to do, as long as he’s in the hospital, than to go and get himself X-rayed. Him, who uses duct tape for cuts and wounds. The resulting film looks very funny: as if a child has scratched little dots and crosses into the shot and their ribs. Now the boys are practically works of primitive art inside!
6. Why does Castiel phone Sam rather than Dean? How does he even know his number?
7. Maybe he wants to cover his tracks: now that he’s got the phone their conversations could be overheard by Heaven’s technical department, so he can’t call Dean directly. They put themselves in danger with these phones anyway.
8. By the way, if his human skills are that imperfect, how did he manage to get the phone at all and learn to use it? Okay, at least he saw Dean use it in 4.22.
9. You’ve got to appreciate the fact that Castiel risked his life and sacrificed his angelic status (how much it rings a bell – you died for the one you love? join the Winchester
10. As soon as Castiel descends from heavenly realms onto the earthly environment, he starts to open up much more as a character. All through Season 4, he represented an archetype – a taciturn, mysterious angel, and you never knew his motivations or feelings. Maybe he didn’t have a lot of them at all, but it’s when he’s turned himself into a castaway that he emerges as a personality for the first time. He finally begins to display genuinely human emotions – when he’s talking to Dean, he’s very humanly angry and frustrated at their mistake. I now understand why the Castiel/Dean pairing claims to be an OTP.
11. Basically, we learn that the show has been one big huge mirror and literary symmetry all along. Season 1 was all centered round the boys’ search for their father, Season 5 again has a theme of son looking for his father, only on a higher level. Full circle, that. Castiel thinks that in 4.22 both he and the boys were, respectively, resurrected and saved by his father, i.e. God. But now his father is missing, and he wants to find him, as he thinks God is the only one apart from Michael who can stop Lucifer from destroying the mankind. Now he and Dean do have a common bond.
12. How many angelic children does God have at all, then, and if every angel is his child, why some of them (Archangels) are more important than the others? ‘Cause they’re older? And, note, they are ALL brothers. And humans may be angels’ brothers, too, God being their father and mentor. So many possibilities for whatever -cest, slash girls.
13. Also, it feels very Biblical, Greek myths-like and Freudian that these angelic brothers fight and even kill one another, and that one of them (Lucifer) dared question his father’s rightness and go against him – he didn’t go as far as killing him, (the Bible is more merciful than the heathen Greek mythology?) but he’d like to destroy the labour of his life, the mankind. Lucifer, wasn’t he just a little boy who needed more attention while his Dad was away on business? So he decided to break his father’s work in revenge.
Lucifer: Where’s Dad? Why is he never home?
Michael: He’s working a job.
Lucifer: When is he coming back?
Michael: I don’t know. Eat your dinner.
Lucifer (broods): When I’m older, I’m gonna blow his workshop down. So that he could play baseball with me.
And, obviously, they all never knew their mother, if there ever was one (don’t let me venture into THIS – I mean, how has God ever created his children ALONE?) Then again, if his children are androgynous and gender-bending, he must be androgynous himself. So, is it like, sex with oneself? A Narcissus situation? Fluid sexuality is totally righteous, see?
14. Needless to say, this celestial family drama mirrors the life story of our human boys. It’s only logical that if people are created in God’s mould, then they should go through the same feelings and experiences that God and his family did. Dean the elder brother and Dad’s loyal supporter. And Sam his junior and disappointed in Dad and his business, so a perfect Lucifer. See, Lucifer refused to obey God and rebelled against the way of life God proposed, and was rejected for that, and Sam? Hunting has been his Dad’s religion, and he refused to follow it, wanting more knowledge and freedom, like Lucifer did, so he went to college, and his father also rejected him. Does that make John Winchester a God? Then maybe Sam and Dean have more brothers somewhere, too, not only Adam?
15. Also, funny to learn even God can suck at parenting. Then again, he had so many children to manage it’s probably understandable.
16. God, Sam, it’s good your brother’s not a Michael. Otherwise he’ll have to lock you down in a cage for all the mess you’ve made. Wait… he nearly did when he put you in this panic room.
17. Dean is reluctant to give the amulet to Castiel, feels “naked” without it and tells him not to lose it – for obvious reasons. It’s easy to have lost this amulet in all the battles he’s been through, yet it’s still with him, so maybe the amulet keeps itself from being stolen or lost. Maybe that’s why it can be used to find God.
18. Suppose Lucifer wins and destroys all mankind, then after his task is over, what’s gonna happen to his vessel? Will he be the only human left to live, or –? Fanfic, please.
19. And the symbolic meaning of this scene could be that (a) Dean thus acknowledges his “brotherhood” with Castiel (because the amulet was a token of brotherly love), but (b) at the same time he takes part of his brotherhood with Sam away to Castiel. It almost feels like he puts his trust within his angel friend now, not his brother. We never see Sam’s face when this scene is on, and he never says anything and doesn’t appear to be interested. But you bet it hurts him.
20. When they approach the demon-swept town in Colorado (River Pass
21. This episode starts in an unusually slow pace, but then proceeds to very frantic and hurried action. That’s the nature of television, often you need a quick mind to follow the dramatically unfurling narrative, they can’t afford long pauses of contemplation when every episode lasts for less than 40 minutes.
22. Are all hunter parents that reckless? Just give their boys and girls a gun and let them roam around abandoned towns soaked with the paranormal? That’s a seriously innovative educational method.
23. When the boys enter the town’s main street, Norman Greenbaum’s famous “Spirit In The Sky” blasts out of a deserted car, until Sam switches its engine off. For some reason, this song sounds especially good in this context and the show in general.
24. All these scared people gathered inside while unknown danger lurks somewhere outside – cf. “Croatoan” or “Nightshifter”.
25. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to equip all these people with guns and teach them to shoot, boys. You inadvertently helped start the War, like you helped start the Apocalypse (note: it happened because you freakin’ wrecked your relationship, I’ll say it again).
26. They bicker about who should go out and locate demons and who should stay to watch over the people. At one point, Sam pushes Dean against the wall (slashy!). And Dean tells Sam that THEY NEED TO TALK. Yahoo! Dean finally quits avoiding conversation. Bravo.
Still, the essence of their abrupt talk is that Dean won’t let Sam be around demons alone, as he is suspicious about Sam’s addiction, his concern mutating into mistrust.
27. And while Sam is all I’m-clean-the-cleanest-I’ve-been, it soon turns out the mere sight of blood dripping from his knife (when he goes to a nearby supermarket to collect rock salt he has to kill two young men he takes for demons – quite in vain, as it becomes clear later) still turns the addiction on, he can barely resist the urge.
28. And Latinating! He has to recollect it now, too bad it doesn’t work.
39. The super suspicious look on Dean’s face when he sees Sam towering above the two dead bodies on the floor, the bloody knife in his hand, says it all.
30. His worry and distrust clearly show he does care about Sam – only he handles it the wrong way now. Yeah, Dean, your brother has made a huge mistake, and may make one again, but don’t you see he’s trying as hard as he can (he’s “learnt his lesson”) to be a good boy, so can’t you show him some support instead of turning your back on him? Do we have to remind you how sensitive the guy is and how easily misled? Maybe it’s not the best idea to leave him alone with his conflicting emotions just now?
31. By the way, why in all the mayhem triggered by the War, the boys didn’t turn against each other, like, very Freudianly, Ellen and Jo did?
32. Jo and Rufus take Sam for a demon – to them he appears to have black eyes – and Joe finally takes her proper revenge on him since, I don’t know, “Born Under A Bad Sign”. It shouldn’t be funny, but somehow it is: they obligatorily tie an incredulous Sam down to a chair and then attempt to drown him in holy water and get him choked on rock salt. And no blood spilled, so it’s a mild torture by Miss Gamble’s standards, I guess.
33. Back in the base camp, Dean learns from Ellen that Sam’s been caught by Fake!Demons and his initial reaction is to aim for the door and to rescue… but then he takes time to discuss the confusing turn of events with Mrs. Harvelle. Dean, why are you so in the mood to talk today? Somebody needs your help, you heartless… and you sit down and talk so that we could all admire your awesome analytical skills? Oh. But you know what, Dean? Forget it, you did everything right, as it turns out.
34. What did I tell you? Dean’s reading experience is totally underestimated! The man knows the Bible like he’s a friggin’ expert!
35. Falling star, poisoned river, collapsed bridge, red car masking for an apocalyptic horse – all of the Book of Revelation’s signs for the arrival of the War monster, one of the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse. That’s it, never gonna wish upon a star again.
36. Meanwhile, the War grants Sam a private conversation. No wonder – according to him, the guy’s gonna be the flag-waver of the upcoming chaos (his “poster boy”), so he should have a few master classes. And smart Sam doesn’t need the Bible to guess who his visitor is. And the ring switch! The ring is a powerful mythological symbol of its own.
37. God, I think we haven’t seen Dean with black eyes since, I don’t know, “Dream A Little Dream Of Me”.
38. All the mayhem that ensues – people running around, aiming at and shooting each other, fighting – looks slightly ridiculous, and maybe that was the point. It’s a very humanistic episode, clearly showing any war, be it in Germany, Middle East or Ireland, is a result of delusion that makes people, stricken with paranoia and fear, literally see things, while all these people are, in fact, the same and are only being driven into mutual hatred and manipulated like puppets by a monster of war, whose only strength lies in his ring. Clever, show.
39. Okay, maybe Sam should be tied more often, if only it’s almost the only opportunity for Dean these days to practice his awesome rough tenderness towards him.
40. When it’s war, it’s words and negotiations that only work and save the world from going mad – Dean manages to convince Rufus he’s not being a demon using words rather than fists.
41. They can’t kill the War, but they certainly can deprive him of his ring that makes people see demons in each other with its switch (a very good trope). Dean, it’s really wise you keep this ring.
42. The last scene is set to an almost pastoral scenery of a lush late spring or summer afternoon, while the boys peacefully sit at a picnic table and negotiate their future. The last we ever saw them talk like this was a long time ago. Unlike the weather around, the content of their conversation is bleak. And this table looks like a gap, a divide that is between them now.
They finally have all the time in the world to do a little sharing. And, Sammy, are you gonna believe and accept everything Dean suggests he feels towards you? “You’re scaring me, man” – “I’m scaring myself”, now it’s “I don’t trust you” – “I don’t trust me either”, what next?
Sam was expecting a fight – hell, we too. And Dean thinks he spends more time worrying about Sam than doing his job. And he thinks he can’t afford it now that he’s got such mission on his hands. Really, Dean…
Sam’s crushed and thinks his addiction is getting over him. So when he suggests he should step back from hunting, they should part their ways (that’s for which time?), he should quit Dean and try to get back to a “normal” life again (seriously…), Dean agrees. I mean, !!! . Dean, you’re dumb. And arrogant. Sam, you’re dumb. And a whining princess. Because (a) how many troubles does it take to make you realise you can’t successfully fight the evil on your own?; (b) any attempts at “normal” life fail for you, Sam; even if you won’t trouble trouble, the trouble will trouble you, it will find you to it in the dark, as “this path is truly in your blood”, too, so don’t be a wimp and hide from destiny, dammit; (c) Dean, don’t you just know you’re gonna worry about your brother even more when he’s away?
They decide to, like, check their feelings. Ha. Completely illogical. In other words, I’m already placing my bets on who will be the first to call whom and how soon.
43. That Dean offers him the Impala feels very generous. The car is probably Dean’s most beloved thing after Sam, something that retains part of his soul, like an equivalent of the amulet Sam gave him when they were children, something with which Sam would never feel alone. And Dean doesn’t even hesitate, as he thinks this time it’s for real and they’re, like, done. But Sam generously refuses as if he wants absolutely no reminders. He’s gonna start a new life, Sam. Oh boys, I should be crying, but I can’t stop laughing inside at your pre-doomed attempts at independence. Don’t you get it your marriage is literally made in Heaven, geniuses?
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