The Pro-Choicers Fight City Hall and Lose, As Usual
Supernatural is a very feminist show. Even though it is like a Larry McMurtry Western where all the women end up dead or raped or minus a hand or two. But like a Larry McMurtry Western, the women do as they please (and do whom they please) before their big life (or death) transformation.
Supernatural is essentially the story of Mary Campbell and the choices that she made to have a happy family. And it is what Mary decided to do about that that affects the story of Supernatural and all the of male characters in it.
Mary Campbell grew up in Lawrence Kansas as the only daughter of a Hunter family. She loved her mom and dad but she wanted to be a Normal Girl (she is sort of the opposite of Jo Harvelle who grew up in a Hunter family as a Normal Girl and decided that she wanted to be Hunter---oh these girls who are never satisfied).
Mary could fight like the Karate Kid:
And she could knife fight like a prag in Oz:
A skill which she would pass on to eldest son, Dean, who could also handle a knife and a stake in a similar manner.
But Mary really wanted to be a Princess and when she found her Prince:
She couldn't find a Fairy Godmother so she had to make a deal with a Yellow Eyed Demon to make her Normal so that she and her prince could live happily ever after. Mary sold the birthright of her second son for Happily Ever After. But Mary made the deal with a Demon and Demons just don't do Happily Ever After. Fortunately Mary didn't really live long enough to find "There is no Happily Ever After" out, but she did really regret it when the Yellow Eyed Demon showed up to claim her child. All those Maternal Love feelings and hormones made her welch out on that deal, and she became a Hunter again to save her child. It ended badly.
Mary's normal life went up in flames and her child developed a disposition to drink demon blood. And her Prince became an obsessive and secretive Demon Hunter and her oldest son became the Stubbornest Hunter and HornDog that you would ever hope to meet. Actually you wouldn't want to meet him, because you would think that he was a little too odd to be around for any long period of time with any comfort.
It was as if Mary's family was cursed by her choices. The Winchesters became like the Greek Tragedies' House of Atreus. Like those Greeks, first you start messing with the natural order of things and feed the Gods a banquet of your own son to test their taste buds, and then from there, you start human sacrificing your daughter to the Gods for a nice cool breeze to take you to Troy. It's a bad business that will end with a schizoid son who murders his mother and a daughter who won't comb her hair and really can't be trusted around cutlery.
Of course, all that family cursing does give you great drama and comedy(the Greeks proved that).
Everyone in this episode (human and angel kind) goes back to the Past to try and change Mary's choices. And I don't know why.
Earlier, In the Beginning, Dean and Cass the Rebel Angel (before he "rebelled") went back to the past and couldn't change anything. Mary made her deal with the Yellow Eyed Demon to save her Prince who dislocated his neck during a make out and parking date with her. Then Cass the Not Then Rebel Angel gave Dean a speech about the Past being the Past and no one (not even the Angels) can change that.
But Anna another Rebel Angel (and I don't know why every one on this show talks about Heaven as if it were a monolith, there are Rebel Angels right and left) goes to the past to kill Sam so that Lucifer won't find his vessel and there will be no big fight that incinerates half the planet and there will be no Croatoan Virus unleashed. And if Anna can't kill Sam, then she will kill Mary and John, his parents, before they have him and the Yellow Eyed Demon claims him as payment.
Anna the Rebel Angel does kill Sam in the past but she can't kill Mary or John.
I think that Anna has a crush on John. She handles him so tenderly as she bats him around.
Anna recruits Uriel, the Smiting Angel, to help her kill all the Winchesters in the Past.
And to just be a credit to the prettiness of his Vessel.
But none of that works, because Michael the ArchAngel shows up, like a Deus Ex Machina from the Greeks, and puts everything back in its natural order.
Mary made her choices and Michael is the only one who respects them. This is all about Mary's Right to Choose and only she can do that. No men or Angels can take that away from her. Mary is the one in control here.
Mary won't leave John and Mary won't abort Dean and Mary will have Sam. Because those are her choices. She has made them and it is all in the Past now.
You would think that Dean, of all people, could respect that. He tells Michael that he has the right to choose for himself. And Michael, who is not a Free Will Advocate, abides by Dean's decision (although he thinks that Dean is full of IT---and IT is not choice but bull shit). Dean should realize that he is not the only one who has Free Will. Mary does too. Dean can't force her to his Will, isn't that what Heaven and the Rebel Angels are trying to do to Dean and Sam?
Once again, we learn that the Past is the Past. And that Sam and Dean should take some advice from St. Francis of Assisi, "Accept the things that you can't change. Change what you can change. And develop the wisdom to know the difference."
We also learn that Michael is one Damn Fine ArchAngel and that unlike Raphael, he has a sense of humor. Unlike Gabriel and Lucifer, he can be subtle. And Michael is a True Believer and will do what is Right even if it costs him a beloved brother. It is amusing and informative to watch two beings, Dean and Michael, who have such firm moral codes of conduct that they live by, clash. Each is determined to stubbornly do what each thinks is right and each is committed to making things right. There is a certain rigidity to each of them.
Can they come to some sort of agreement to save the world? Michael appears to be the most accommodating at the moment, but then he does have the upper hand. He tells Dean when they first meet, "I just want you to understand what you and I have to do." None of the other ArchAngels have given Dean that right to assert himself. They have all pushed him to do what they want him to do and Dean isn't the kind that takes well to the push, he will shove back. And then he will shut down and become very defensive.
Michael and Dean need to talk when Dean isn't so defensive. They should go to a bar or a strip club and have some beers and discuss the state of the world and what to do about it. Dean can say no (although Michael can think to himself that Dean is such an Idiot Dick and that he Will say yes), but what do they do about saving the world if that is the case?
When Lucifer meets Sam, he only discusses what Lucifer will do when he moves in Sam. There is no "We" in LucIfer. Only "I".
And Sam got some needed therapy about his anger issues. I think that Lucifer is going to be peeved that Sam is not the Angry Young Man that he was. But since Sam has given up the Demon Blood, he has become the voice of Rational Thinking. Sam is the only one thinking about what might happen in Detroit and how they can stop it. Dean is just cracking jokes about it.
Michael and Castiel
Where was Castiel in the Past? In the honeymoon suite of a hotel room barfing up blood. Interesting, Castiel and Michael never crossed paths in the Past.
When Sam meets Lucifer in Carthage Missouri, Castiel hushes Sam and Dean.
When Michael meets Mary and Soon-to-Be Dean in the Past, Michael hushes them.
And when Castiel meets with Anna, there is much bursting lighting and wind to announce his arrival. When Michael shows up at the Campbell cabin, there is bursting of lighting and windows and a keening and a lot of wind. Now Castiel was trying to impress Anna with his power, before he put the fear of Castiel into her. And I think that Michael was trying to show up under the radar, so to speak, with a suppression of his power. But they both showed up the same way.
My Theory? Castiel is a Rebel Angel, my ass. Angels do like to mind fuck Dean just like Demons like to fuck Sam. Castiel, like Crowley the Crossroads Demon, is running a separate grift. I just haven't figured out what it is, yet.
It's In the Blood
Human blood can ward off angels. Sam's Demon/Human blood worked too.
Who smudged the Angel sigils and evaporated the Holy Oil at the Campbell cabin? Is Michael that powerful? Did he have help?
Those Houses of the Cursed
This is the Campbell Cabin. It has spooky, restless, moving trees.
This is the Winchester House in the Pilot. It had a spooky, moving, restless tree.
Sonny and Cher
In The Beginning, Dean told John that Sonny and Cher had broken up.
But perhaps, they didn't.
Good Bye to Anna
Adieu Anna the Rebel Angel. You were an Angel with Principles. And you treated John well. Dean was a Dick about you in this episode. Michael may have fried you, but Dean was the Dick. You were just an Easy Angel Lay to him.
Angels Watching Over Me
Michael did watch over Mary and Dean. Michael, "I'm just giving your Mother what she wants." And Michael gave Dean his Darling Little Sammy back.
There's an Angel on Sam's shoulder.
There's a Dean on Michael's shoulder.
Team Free Will
I think that the Three Stooges are back. They are calling themselves Team Free Will these days. There is STD Sammy (much like Typhoid Mary), the Satyr (a boon companion of Dionysus), and the Virgin. These guys are going to ensure that every woman has the Right to Choose. I think that we are in trouble, girls.
Dean's Dream
This is Dean's Dream Strip Club. Notice all the women in corsets. That is sort of confining, isn't it Dean? I thought that you didn't like Prudes. And the woman on the right, is that a TV remote in her hand? I guess that that is Dean's tribute to Hotel Porn Channels.
An Acting Accolade
Normally, I don't select anyone for special attention in the Acting Category, because everyone does such a good job on this show. Kudos to all.
But Mr. Cohen who played John and Michael was superb. When I was making screen caps, I didn't even have to label what part that he was playing because the character was there in the still picture of him.
Very Nice. I await the next Michael and hope that he is just as good.
gifs by vt_graphics
Screen caps by me