Life Force and Souls in Season 2
So, I'm most of the way through Season 2 on my mission to rewatch the series, and I thought I'd continue to put down my thoughts concerning life force and souls. Season 2 had a lot of interesting moments (spirits! zombies! crossroads demons!) and even more interesting conclusions.
Life Force and Souls in Season 2:
As discussed in my last post, it's in the Season 2 premiere, In My Time of Dying (2x01), that we discover the origin of angry spirits. The Reaper Tessa reveals that angry spirits are actually the souls of people who refused to move on when a Reaper came for them. Another interesting discovery is that Reapers can't force a soul to move on: either souls have an intrinsic power greater than that of a Reaper, or it's in a rulebook somewhere that the Reapers have to give souls a choice.
In Everybody Loves a Clown (2x02), Sam and Dean encounter a rakshasa. Not unlike shtrigas and wendigos, a rakshasa can live for a long time by feeding only occasionally. In particular, rakshasa need to feed on human flesh a few times every twenty to thirty years. I believe that, like shtrigas and wendigos, rakshasa can absorb and subvert the life force of human beings. It is by doing this that they can extend their own lives and gain supernatural abilities. For instance, the rakshasa can shapeshift and become invisible.
Sam and Dean's first encounter with a zombie occurs in Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (2x04). Zombies may be reanimated corpses, but in this episode we see that the zombie Angela can not only communicate and *cough* have a relationship *cough* with someone, but that she also wants revenge for the people who wronged her in life. That said, she wants BLOODY revenge--she is obviously different from the person she was in life. Either she was reanimated without her soul, or her soul was damaged on the return trip. DEAN What you brought back isn't even your daughter anymore! These things are vicious. They're violent! They're so nasty they rot the ground around them.
Somehow, zombie Angela is so unpure that she kills vegetation with her presence. Weird...
The spirit in The Usual Suspects (2x07) is notable because she is not a vengeful spirit, but a death omen. She wants justice, and she tries to warn her killer's next victims before they meet the same fate that she did. From this, it seems that a soul can choose to stay behind for a good reason and not become an angry spirit. (Like Mary's spirit in Nightmare [1x14]?) She also seems to "move on" once her killer has met his end and justice is had--Sam and Dean don't have to salt and burn her.
In Crossroad Blues (2x08) we see our first crossroads demon. Crossroads demons are able to "grant a wish" in exchange for a person's soul: this tells us that souls are valuable enough that demons WANT to make deals for them. The crossroads demon that Dean summons tells him that John's soul is being tortured in Hell, and, while we learn why they tortured John in particular, it doesn't really make sense why they would spend so much time torturing all the souls they bargain for. What's the gain? Random thoughts: It's possible that damaging a soul adds (demonic) value to it. It's possible that it is the intrinsic power of the soul that is able to fuel the wish granting.
Dean makes a deal in All Hell Breaks Loose: Part One (2x21). In exchange for Dean's soul, Sam is resurrected. Sam is dead and his soul has moved on, but the crossroads demon is able to bring him back to life, soul intact. Azazel also reveals that a demon can't resurrect someone unless a deal is made.
In All Hell Breaks Loose: Part Two (2x22), John's soul escapes from Hell when the Devil's Gate is opened. He's then able to help Dean and Sam kill Azazel: he grabs the demon smoke that is possessing the human man and stuns him for a time. After Azazel is dead, there is a flash of light, John flickers, and then he disappears. Final Fantasy X-esque glitters occur. Anyone? Anyone? Just me? Okay then.
Honorable Mentions
In Bloodlust (2x03), we see another side of vampires. Perhaps they're not devoid of souls after all? But still, they live on human blood, which makes me think they're subverting life force somehow. Another interesting point that I didn't mention earlier is that they're poisoned by dead man's blood, so there's something about a person's blood that is different after the soul leaves the body.
Molly, the spirit in Road Kill (2x16) died in a car accident and her soul can't move on because it is trapped in a death loop with the vengeful spirit of the man she ran over. It's unclear whether or not his soul is what kept hers from moving on in the first place, but in the end, it is her love for her husband that keeps her from moving on. The last thing she'd said to her husband was that he was a jerk, and it is not until Sam tells her that her husband knew that she loved him and she needs to move on that her spirit vanishes in a flash of light. (Sam and Dean couldn't salt and burn her because she had already been cremated.)
In Hollywood Babylon (2x18), spirits are bound by a spell and forced to commit murder at the bidding of a man named Walter Dixon. It doesn't seem like these spirits (ie, lost souls) acted violently prior to being forced by Walter, but when they are finally free of their compulsion, they turn on Walter and kill him. We don't see whether they vanish afterwards or Sam and Dean salt and burn them...
The djinn in What Is and What Should Never Be (2x20) looks into Dean's soul and sees his greatest desire: for his mother not to have died when he was 4 years old. The djinn is another creature that lives for a long time by feeding on humans: in particular, by drinking their blood.
Life Force and Souls in Season 2:
As discussed in my last post, it's in the Season 2 premiere, In My Time of Dying (2x01), that we discover the origin of angry spirits. The Reaper Tessa reveals that angry spirits are actually the souls of people who refused to move on when a Reaper came for them. Another interesting discovery is that Reapers can't force a soul to move on: either souls have an intrinsic power greater than that of a Reaper, or it's in a rulebook somewhere that the Reapers have to give souls a choice.
In Everybody Loves a Clown (2x02), Sam and Dean encounter a rakshasa. Not unlike shtrigas and wendigos, a rakshasa can live for a long time by feeding only occasionally. In particular, rakshasa need to feed on human flesh a few times every twenty to thirty years. I believe that, like shtrigas and wendigos, rakshasa can absorb and subvert the life force of human beings. It is by doing this that they can extend their own lives and gain supernatural abilities. For instance, the rakshasa can shapeshift and become invisible.
Sam and Dean's first encounter with a zombie occurs in Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (2x04). Zombies may be reanimated corpses, but in this episode we see that the zombie Angela can not only communicate and *cough* have a relationship *cough* with someone, but that she also wants revenge for the people who wronged her in life. That said, she wants BLOODY revenge--she is obviously different from the person she was in life. Either she was reanimated without her soul, or her soul was damaged on the return trip. DEAN What you brought back isn't even your daughter anymore! These things are vicious. They're violent! They're so nasty they rot the ground around them.
Somehow, zombie Angela is so unpure that she kills vegetation with her presence. Weird...
The spirit in The Usual Suspects (2x07) is notable because she is not a vengeful spirit, but a death omen. She wants justice, and she tries to warn her killer's next victims before they meet the same fate that she did. From this, it seems that a soul can choose to stay behind for a good reason and not become an angry spirit. (Like Mary's spirit in Nightmare [1x14]?) She also seems to "move on" once her killer has met his end and justice is had--Sam and Dean don't have to salt and burn her.
In Crossroad Blues (2x08) we see our first crossroads demon. Crossroads demons are able to "grant a wish" in exchange for a person's soul: this tells us that souls are valuable enough that demons WANT to make deals for them. The crossroads demon that Dean summons tells him that John's soul is being tortured in Hell, and, while we learn why they tortured John in particular, it doesn't really make sense why they would spend so much time torturing all the souls they bargain for. What's the gain? Random thoughts: It's possible that damaging a soul adds (demonic) value to it. It's possible that it is the intrinsic power of the soul that is able to fuel the wish granting.
Dean makes a deal in All Hell Breaks Loose: Part One (2x21). In exchange for Dean's soul, Sam is resurrected. Sam is dead and his soul has moved on, but the crossroads demon is able to bring him back to life, soul intact. Azazel also reveals that a demon can't resurrect someone unless a deal is made.
In All Hell Breaks Loose: Part Two (2x22), John's soul escapes from Hell when the Devil's Gate is opened. He's then able to help Dean and Sam kill Azazel: he grabs the demon smoke that is possessing the human man and stuns him for a time. After Azazel is dead, there is a flash of light, John flickers, and then he disappears. Final Fantasy X-esque glitters occur. Anyone? Anyone? Just me? Okay then.
Honorable Mentions
In Bloodlust (2x03), we see another side of vampires. Perhaps they're not devoid of souls after all? But still, they live on human blood, which makes me think they're subverting life force somehow. Another interesting point that I didn't mention earlier is that they're poisoned by dead man's blood, so there's something about a person's blood that is different after the soul leaves the body.
Molly, the spirit in Road Kill (2x16) died in a car accident and her soul can't move on because it is trapped in a death loop with the vengeful spirit of the man she ran over. It's unclear whether or not his soul is what kept hers from moving on in the first place, but in the end, it is her love for her husband that keeps her from moving on. The last thing she'd said to her husband was that he was a jerk, and it is not until Sam tells her that her husband knew that she loved him and she needs to move on that her spirit vanishes in a flash of light. (Sam and Dean couldn't salt and burn her because she had already been cremated.)
In Hollywood Babylon (2x18), spirits are bound by a spell and forced to commit murder at the bidding of a man named Walter Dixon. It doesn't seem like these spirits (ie, lost souls) acted violently prior to being forced by Walter, but when they are finally free of their compulsion, they turn on Walter and kill him. We don't see whether they vanish afterwards or Sam and Dean salt and burn them...
The djinn in What Is and What Should Never Be (2x20) looks into Dean's soul and sees his greatest desire: for his mother not to have died when he was 4 years old. The djinn is another creature that lives for a long time by feeding on humans: in particular, by drinking their blood.