Thoughts and Meta for SPN 7.17
ALRIGHT! This is far too long already, even though it could have easily gone twice this. Just got up to date on SPN (happy dance) wrote most of this, and then needed to go on camp. Although I'm a grammar nazi at heart, I make so many mistakes and mix my words up so much I hope this is readable! Nonetheless, it’s here before the next ep and I can't ( Read more... )
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Do you know why I had to unspam this comment? And if there is a way of making it not so touchy?
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Dean kept the coat for friendship/bromance/love (delete where applicable) reasons, but gave it back to save Sam.
If the preview's line had been included ("part of me always knew you'd come back"), the emotional elements of Dean keeping the trenchcoat would have been highlighted. As it stands, we have to read this into the story. The result is that the giving back of the trenchcoat at that time just seems too much like a "here, this is who you are, fix Sam."
What should have been my favourite scene in the episode, was actually my 2nd least fave because it sullied the months of carrying it around.
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Did Dean manipulate Castiel? Perhaps. However, I don't think it makes sense in the way that you, and others, have presented it. Dean’s confession to Meg that Cas’ mind could shatter tells me that Dean saw to options: Have Emmanuel heal Sam, or have Cas’ mind shatter and have Sam die. So yes: Dean manipulated Cas into doing what was best in that sense.
Anyway, reasons I don’t see it as manipulation:
-- I believe that should Cas’ mind shattering not have been an issue, Dean would believe that Cas would heal Sam no matter if he got his memories. Thus, Dean not telling Cas /purely/ because he wanted him to help Sam does not make sense.
-- I do not believe that Dean had any intention of exposing Cas to anything but what he had expressed to Emmanuel: that his brother was sick, in hospital, and needed help that the doctors weren’t providing. The demons and Meg happened afterward: Dean had no reason to believe that the demon he killed outside Cas’ place wasn’t acting alone. It was /Meg/ that manipulated him into going after the demons, not Dean.
-- Even if Dean were manipulating Cas, the only outcome he expected was a healed Sam and an Amnesiac Cas. He couldn’t tell the future, so how can he be responsible for the outcome? It’s like two cars driving along a road at the speed limit. A car pulls out after the first car, and the second car T-bones it and kills the driver: is the second driver’s crime any worse? Should Dean be incriminated just because his actions had greater consequences that could possibly be expected? I think not: doesn’t make sense to me.
EDITED: first argument. And added this:
Dean certainly did manipulate Cas, but I believe it was for the reasons I wrote in the journal entry. He manipulated him, but he did not /use/ him callously, did not see him remotely as a means to an end.
Wow, I hope that's not to argumentative!
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As I see it (remember, crazy Dean/Cas goggles):
- Dean cared for Cas enough to carry the dirty, damaged trenchcoat around for months despite what Cas did (what on earth must Sam have thought?).
- Dean puts Sam before everyone including himself and certainly including the guy who he blames for getting Sam in this condition.
- Dean wanted to stop Cas remembering who he was, but when it became apparent that the only way to get through the demons was via Cas the angel, not Emmanuel the healer he went along with it.
- Dean could have let Cas go, Dean could have had a big heart-to-heart with Cas about friendship and betrayal and forgiveness. Dean could have done a lot of things. He didn't (except in fixit!fic, thank god for that). He used the trenchcoat as a last resort, when he thought he was going to lose the only thing that could help Sammy. He still used it though. He still manipulated Cas (if Dean believes Balthazar's "joke" about Cas being in love with him, that is unforgiveable). He chose his brother over Cas. He didn't want to, but he did. He always will. It doesn't make the manipulation any less like manipulation though. But (big bug!) I do agree with you that it wasn't callous...
At the end of the day, Dean said that he and Sam have no friends. It is almost as if by giving the trenchcoat back, and Cas redeeming himself in a convenient way for Dean to not have to deal with anything, Dean can say "yep, now we really are alone." This is not good for his mental health.
I think Dean knows he used Cas. I think Dean knows that the reason Cas even went dark-side is because all throughout Dean and Cas's friendship Dean has been a manipulative, self-centred poo-bum. By denying the friendship, he can deny having a friend who gave up so much for him, he can deny using that friend repeatedly, he can deny pushing that friend away so that friend went dark-side, he can deny that he ever had a friend at all. Like you said, Dean does not think happiness can come when Dean is around. I think leaving Cas behind without friendship status, especially now the trenchcoat has gone, is his way of protecting himself from the world (and in his eyes, the world from him).
Dean really needs help (in my head-canon, that help is the realization of great man-love for Cas, but I know that is never going to happen). I hope that help is (a) believable, (b) long-term, and (c) not death. I suspect it could be the latter though, especially if we get another season.
Oh dear, now I have made myself sad.
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