Sadism (a.k.a. “Upping the Stakes”): The Heart of Every Drama
I’ve had a primitive incarnation of this meta, which was supposed to be the twin of this meta, festering on my hard drive for years. Because we’re encroaching on the end of yet another season, I thought it would be fun to dust it off and finish it. The original premise (from early S3 … doh!) was about upping the stakes in fiction and how SPN does
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For instance, s1 left Dean at the point of death, then immediately saves him in the season 2 premiere by sacrificing John in his stead. Which brings me to the point I wanted to address in your post:
"In the end, however, that goal is achieved but at an even greater expense. And it’s this outstanding, unresolved expense that lays the groundwork for the following season."
This theme was touched upon in SPN by the Trickster in Mystery Spot:
"This obsession to save Dean? The way you two keep sacrificing yourselves for each other? Nothing good comes out of it. Just blood and pain. Dean's your weakness. And the bad guys know it, too. It's gonna be the death of you, Sam. Sometimes you just gotta let people go."
The main motivational force (OT but had to say that the plot & motivation tigers were gorgeous!) in SPN is about the Winchesters' need to save people but most of all to save each other. And each time a Winchester acts to save another, they invariably save a Winchester at the cost of another Winchester in a viciously reductive cycle. Thus Mary saved John by promising Sam to YED, John saved Dean by selling himself to YED, Dean brings Sam back to life by selling his soul and so on. I see s5 as the penultimate ending to this cycle as Sam finally moves from being the bartered object then the intended object to taking his place as the active subject for the first time in his family history. He was forbidden to sacrifice his life/soul to get Dean's return and I think that was the rot that ate away at Sam both pre and during s4. This time, Sam is ready to assume the burden of being the one to sacrifice, rather than the one being sacrificed or sacrificed for.
To return to your table above;
S5 quest: To put Lucifer back in his cage. To get Michael out of Adam. To not have to say 'yes' to either Lucifer or Michael. To stop Lucifer and Michael from meeting before the previous objectives are met.
CONFLICT: To resolve the doubts and fears for each other
S5 resolution: The apocalypse is stopped. Both Sam and Dean are alive, safe and not occupied vessels.
S5 expense: Instead of losing Sam or Dean permanently, Bobby, Castiel and Adam have been added as possible sacrifices because someone(s)is going to pay. Sam or Dean will be occupied vessels.
Unfinished business for S6: Most obvious gambit is to get Sam back after he gets stuck in Lucifer's cage. Or alternatively to get Dean back after he says yes to Michael to save Sam. Interesting possibility is to have Adam back to temporarily 'replace' the missing Winchester until the resolution in s6.
Possible surprises in final episode: Return of Jesse, the anti-Christ. There's just no way to justify having introduced this character unless he gets to pop in at the end. Return of Chuck, the prophet motif appears to have been written out but he was supposed to be God's prophet so should really be involved in the final scenario. Rufus is unlikely but Rafael should really be included. And I thought Meg was dead in 5.10 actually, was she dead or was she just locked down? Not expected: God.
As for Lucifer, the reference to him being difficult to kill had to do with the colt, the boys have not yet tried going at him with an angel sword but since Gabriel did (and died), I'm suspecting that it would be possible to kill him with an angel or rather an arch angel sword. Getting one, without being taken over by the said arch angel would be the tricky bit.
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Thank you! That was a fun meta to write. It's always interesting to look at past meta and if any predictions held through subsequent seasons. I think that the small amount of predictive stuff in there was vague enough (and wasn't too surprising) that it held up through subsequent seasons.
by use of sacrificial gambit
Yes, wonderful point about the Winchester gambit! It's ironic that even though the Winchesters purport to love each other so much that they'll do "anything" (including sacrifice themselves to "save" the other), they fail to realize the how much they're hurting the ones they're trying to save by their leaving them (dying).
Your mention of Mary sacrificing unborn Sam to save John in 4x03 just made me realize that that could possibly be seen by Sam as a great betrayal. Not only was virtually motherless and doesn't have any of his own memories of Mary, his mother essentially bartered his life away. O_o Talk about self-worth issues.
Sam finally moves from being the bartered object then the intended object to taking his place as the active subject for the first time in his family history.
You sum up the the hero's journey. :) And how appropriate is it that the youngest Winchester, the one that was always protected (even though he didn't want to be), is the last to be allowed to step up. I guess I'm not counting Adam as he's a half Winchester.
Moreover, I think this is exactly why the past number of seasons the writers haven't let Sam succeed at the tasks that matter (S3: saving Dean) or took his successes and turned them into something disastrous (S4: killing Lilith, releasing Lucifer). They needed to bring him to his lowest point, showing him to be largely ineffectual or not allowing him to be the driver of his own destiny, so the ONE time Sam will succeed will be significant and meaningful and we can all say, "Finally!"
To stop Lucifer and Michael from meeting before the previous objectives are met.
No kidding! I was just thinking about this exact issue. Now that Michael is in Adam (apparently as of 5x21), there's no reason that we know of that's preventing him from going after Lucifer at any moment and totally circumventing Sam and Dean. The only reasonable explanations I have are: 1) Michael hasn't yet found Lucifer and 2) there's some disadvantage to being in the temporary vessel and taking on the opponent in one's true vessel would afford a better chance at winning, thus Lucifer and Michael are both trying to wait out Sam and Dean on the chance one of them will say, "Yes."
My reply is so long I have to split it into two! To be continued...
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For a while my favorite S6 goal was "save Bobby". Crowley does have his soul hostage and demons do lie. ;)
...is to have Adam back to temporarily 'replace' the missing Winchester until the resolution in s6.
I love this idea! Even though he's half a Winchester, he's still half a Winchester!
Return of Jesse, the anti-Christ. There's just no way to justify having introduced this character unless he gets to pop in at the end.
I agree. I still have a hard time with that episode. I felt like introducing Jesse created an easy way to tie up the Apocalypse without affording Sam and Dean active roles. Jesse swooping in and doing *something* could be provide a really unsatisfying end. But conversely, Jesse not showing up all just makes me frown at that episode even harder.
was she dead or was she [Meg] just locked down?
She was still screaming when the scene ended, so it's debatable what actually happened to her (if she died or not). My guess is that her meat suit sustained damage but her demon self was still intact (not in Hell, not dead). If she vacated that body or not is another bag of beans...
the reference to him being difficult to kill had to do with the colt
I'm pretty sure it was restated last episode that the boys can't kill Lucifer. And that's where my bhuz confusion came from because ... why can't they kill him? *points to your comment below*
I'm suspecting that it would be possible to kill him with an angel or rather an arch angel sword. Getting one, without being taken over by the said arch angel would be the tricky bit.
You'd think Michael would be willing to lend them his. *winkwink* I suppose Michael handing over his sword and saying, "Go for it," wouldn't make for an exciting climax, though.
Thanks for sharing your insights! They're terrific.
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I really loved your meta re the whole 'upping the stakes' thing because that's such a fav concept of mine, and one that is very central to another big fandom that I'm into, Japanese manga/anime. One of these days, I want to do a meta comparing the Winchester brothers with the Elric brothers (from Full Metal Alchemist, if you haven't seen it, I guarantee you'll love this anime/manga - it has all the themes that we adore in SPN and more). Both series really emphasis the whole sacrifice and dealing with the consequences of the said sacrifice only to up the sacrifice further resulting in further loss etc.
And I really agree that "It's always interesting to look at past meta and if any predictions held through subsequent seasons." I know that for me, each of my metas form a foundation for me to build off, as I complete one theory on the show after another.
I'm really glad that you liked my suggestion re Adam because this was exactly how I felt about Adam that "Even though he's half a Winchester, he's still half a Winchester!" But I'm not too sure if the show is going to give him that same recognition. They did kill him off even before the guy turned up! His existence is more about providing an example of 'road not taken' comparison for Sam and Dean and not at all so far about letting him establish himself as the third Winchester which is a shame because even though we've only been shown tiny glimpses, I thought that Adam definitely had Winchester potential.
Regarding Sam's journey, I've also been hoping that the writers will be building the finale as 'the ONE time Sam will succeed will be significant and meaningful and we can all say, "Finally!"' but we'll see what we'll see. (Just one more day!)
And this is exactly what my theory on why Lucifer and Michael have not yet rushed into confrontation in their second best vessels because "there's some disadvantage to being in the temporary vessel and taking on the opponent in one's true vessel would afford a better chance at winning".
Essentially I see angels as transdimensional beings who exist on more than one plane simultaneously and that the 'cage' Lucifer was locked in, was simply that he was unable to access the Earth and Hell planes of existence. The angels require vessels to possess so that they can manifest on Earth - the 'purer' the vessel, the more ability/powers they can access.
I've got this theory on how the whole angel possession works - my guess is that the soul acts as a power conduit for the angelic power and that for example, Castiel was limited after his resurrection because he *lost* Jimmy Novak (the human component of the vessel died at the point of disintegration and God resurrected him in a recreated copy of the original vessel but without a soul, Castiel can't access the full range of his powers). Which is why when Castiel drew the anti-angel sigil directly on his body, he was almost completely cut off from whatever angelic power he was drawing on. The reason Castiel was able to stay within the human body was because there was no other resident soul within (hence confirming the theory that Jimmy Novak is no more).
This then ties to the reason that Lucifer needs gallons of demon blood - which in effect creates the same power conduit as the soul in the angel vessel. Lucifer, like the other angels require the compact in order to access the soul as a power conduit but as he is no longer an angel, his conduit requires the additional *boost* from the demon blood because he has to reach through hell to manifest on Earth.
Oboy. I'm going to need another post for my response to Jesse. To be continued...
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I also felt that I "still have a hard time with that episode" with Jesse the anti-christ as well.
On one hand, they had to kill the child because he was going to be used by Lucifer, and he is so powerful that he can take out all the angels with a single word, on the other hand, neither angels nor demons can track this child because he is so powerful that he can shield himself from them ...??? Does not compute. Illogical. Illogical.
I really got the feeling that the entire episode was a set up so that Dean could say this in the ending.
"I'm starting to get why parents lie to their kids. You want them to believe that the worst thing out there is mixing Pop Rocks and Coke-protect them from the real evil. You want them going to bed feeling safe. If that means lying to them, so be it. The more I think about it...the more I wish Dad had lied to us. "
Which was beautiful but didn't justify throwing in Jesse mish-mash into the plotline where he sat, unable to be digested into the main canon plotline. The thing is that they've made it too easy to make an anti-christ according to Castiel, mix half human, half-demon and presto. If the formula is that simple, first, why just stop at Jesse? Second, what'd you get if you mix half human with half angel? (Which has been hinted at re Novak and Winchester bloodlines) Again, absolutely fascinating possibilities a la x-men and mutants but one that is largely ignored by the show.
For example, the hint from Cupid re match-making of John and Mary implies that there has to be *something special* about the Campbell bloodline not just the Winchester line but the show never picked this up! This kind of sloppy plotting drives me nuts. And as for Jesse, again, in order to get an anti-christ of the kind of power level he's supposed to represent, I'd have imagined a more potent cocktail for his heritage, which could have been possible if his mother was also of the 'angelic' bloodline but since this was never referred to and the specific formula was half human and half demon, not really likely.
Imagine if the show had put a bit of time and thought into the bloodline premise - which was sufficiently hinted at to develop my theories - to establish that the consequences of the angelic bloodline is that it increases the efficiency of the 'power conduit' effect of the host body/soul, enabling the angels to manifest their powers to maximum effect. Think nitro boost. Winchesters are special because they descend from 2, not just one bloodline so they provide the 'purest' mix - hence Adam is a lower class vessel since he has a different mother and therefore is only descended from 1 bloodline. (this is my theory only since the Campbell side has not yet been verified)
The whole 'falling from grace' is a metaphor for the process by which the angel is shut out from one or more dimension of existence. The 'grace' of Anna for example is her 'key' to her angelic dimension and as long as it was 'removed' from her, she was stuck in her mortal shell. Whereas, Lucifer lost his 'grace' thereby being shut out of Earth (and hell) all together, until Sam killed Lilith, the spilling of the demon blood at the gateway served to *grease* a pathway for Lucifer to Earth via hell - and therefore he requires constant, enormous amounts of demon blood to keep this doorway open (as most demons aren't as puissant as Lilith - which would explain Crowley's reluctance to join Lucifer because if any demon's smart enough to have figured this out, or at least suspect it, he is).
Whew. I've been brewing that little theory for a while but this is the first comprehensive attempt. Thank you for your positive feedback re my first comment, you really inspired this. ^^
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