SPN--Season 4 Rewatch

[borgmama1of5]

Rewatch of Supernatural 2022

Season 4

General Observations-I remembered this season as the one where Sam and Dean’s relationship falls apart because they don’t communicate, and started this rewatch looking for the signs. Interestingly, it felt different than I remembered it.

Comments

[fanspired]

> I remembered this season as the one where Sam and Dean’s relationship falls apart because they don’t communicate, and started this rewatch looking for the signs. Interestingly, it felt different than I remembered it.

The thing about the brothers' miscommunication in the first 5 seasons was that it wasn't the tired overused trope that it became later. The reticence and secret keeping were always believable and understandable in the circumstances and grew organically from the boys' characters rather than being forced on them to service the plot.

> Why isn’t there anyone in the store though?

Hadn't thought about that before, but now I'm wondering if the human life at ground zero was vaporized by the angelic blast o-O

> Sam calls Ruby Cathy, she corrects to Chrissie-what was the point of that exchange?

Easy answer is, it was funny, but Kripke doesn't usually write gags to no purpose. (Mind you, I gather Bob Singer and Jensen between them rewrote some of Kripke's dialogue in this scene so it's conceivable it's one of their additions). But assuming it was Kripke, and written with intent, I'd say the purpose from Sam and Ruby's point of view was to reassure Dean that she was just some meaningless nobody passing through Sam's life in the space of the night rather than anyone he need spare a thought about. From a writing point of view, it's also a hint that Sam has changed in Dean's absence and is now willing to entertain one night stands. It's compounded in the scene with Pamela when he and Dean horndog together about her rather than the familiar pattern of Dean letching while Sam rolls his eyes and/or disapproves.

> Dean bluffs the demons to get out of the restaurant but they leave all the demons there-I would have expected Dean to want to exorcise them

First hint that Dean has also changed, perhaps.

> Ruby counsels Sam to tell Dean about using his powers-trying to give good advice or manipulating Sam?

She sounds so sincere in this exchange. Manipulating Sam, yes, but also the writers manipulating the audience to get us on board with trusting her too.

> Castiel: ‘You have no faith’

Ironic, considering Dean was always the one who had "blind faith" in John, then in Sam.

> Cas thought Dean would be able to handle his true voice

That was a comment I thought was going to turn out to be important at the time, but it was never pursued.

It's important, I think, that we're shown only the shadow of Castiel's wings in this scene. It's the first indication that defies our assumptions that the angels are unalloyed agents of light and hints that they are as much creatures of the shadow world as are the demons.

> Angels ‘walking among you for the first time in 2000 years’ (Later episodes show this is not true)

Or later writers just forget/don't know this was ever said.

> Cas: ‘You should show me some respect. I dragged you out of Hell. I can throw you back in’

Dean's really shaken by this exchange. His body language is really cowed when Castiel leans over him, and when he wakes up it takes him several sentences to get his voice back fully.

Other interesting things about this scene: Castiel appears to Dean in his dreams, so Dean is now the one receiving visions. But that's OK because they're coming from a heavenly source, right? o_O

As Dean wakes up, we see Sam returning from the kitchen where Dean's conversation with Castiel took place - a hint, I believe, of what Castiel represented at a symbolic level: just as Ruby represents the shadow side of Dean/Sam's distorted perception of him; so Castiel represents the shadow side of Sam//Dean's distorted perception of him. Sam followed Ruby originally because she appeared to him to represent what Dean would do - the path of practical action, if you will - but it ultimately leads him down a demonic path. Similarly, Dean follows Castiel and the angels because he assumes they represent what Sam would do - the path of righteous action. But just as the demons represent action without thought for moral consequence, the angels are revealed to represent action without concern for human feeling. Thus by following these distorted images of each other rather than working together, both brothers are equally dehumanized.

[borgmama1of5]

Sam followed Ruby originally because she appeared to him to represent what Dean would do - the path of practical action, if you will - but it ultimately leads him down a demonic path. Similarly, Dean follows Castiel and the angels because he assumes they represent what Sam would do - the path of righteous action. But just as the demons represent action without thought for moral consequence, the angels are revealed to represent action without concern for human feeling. Thus by following these distorted images of each other rather than working together, both brothers are equally dehumanized.

Equally led astray by forces they don't see are manipulating them, and because they are emotionally disconnected from each other they don't see how they are being played...and they are disconnected because they are being manipulated...and it's a vicious cycle that I wonder if there would have been any point at which the boys could have broken it?

[fanspired]

Yes and no. Theoretically, if they'd only chosen to walk away from the war, there'd have been no war. ("It's a strange game, professor; the only way to win is not to play"). But given their background and their characters, it was inevitable they would make the choices they did. That's the nature of classical tragedy: the action of fate upon the hero's fatal flaw leads inexorably to his tragic destiny. (In SPN the angels and demons play the role of the fates). In the end, like all the heroes of classical tragedy, the Winchesters' story is there to serve as a moral example, in this case, warning against the destructive path of vengeance and the importance of acceptance and letting go.

[borgmama1of5]

...importance of acceptance and letting go

This touches on my conundrum of loving the relationship between Sam and Dean--watching the show, I am totally captivated by the intensity of their relationship, the lengths they will go to for each other to the point of self-sacrifice...then I turn of the TV and think just how unhealthy that is, how in real life that inability to separate themselves would be extremely unhealthy...and then I turn the TV back on and don't care...

[fanspired]

At least you can see it rationally. There seem to be many fans that can't. Maybe Kripke was too subtle in his critique of the hero myth. He's making up for that now in The Boys! :D