Swan Song
Hrrrg stayed up all Friday night to finish season five with zempasuchil, bawww'ed epically. Which is what SPN season finales do to you. Went slightly mad without sleep all Saturday until I passed out during a rewatch of 5.18 with a friend and decided to call it a night. Watched 5.22 again with ihrketayhl Sunday to demonstrate ( SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER to her. 5.22 reaction! I have actually had a few days to process, so I'm sort of coherent! )
GOOD END in that winlove reigned ultimate supreme; BAD END in that Sam and Dean suffer their most hateful fate, separation. Good thing there's another season!
Wow. That's like the perfect summation of the episode.
Pretty much, thematically, what happened was what I expected to happen; Kripke got to the end of their story and mostly completed the narrative arcs that have been driving the show. Sam sacrificed himself to absolve his guilt; for setting Lucifer free, for failing to rescue Dean. He got to have the agency he's been striving for since at least third season, and in a way all his life; he took an action of his own choosing, to save everything he wants to protect, and he was correct and successful in that action. Dean finally let Sam grow up all the way, let Sam stand on his own, but never loved Sam less as a partner than as a little brother, and stood at his side through the end. He's lost faith in their father, in heaven, and in god and finally found it in his brother. (Believe in me who believes in yourself! Then, believe in you.) God remains absent because they don't need him; they have each other.
Why yes, I did just quote a huge block of your own text back at you! But I have so much yes for this. I was so excited earlier in this season when it looked like Dean might be viewing Sam as a partner (the Paris Hilton ep whose name escapes me), and that Sam might actually be able to redeem himself and save his brother/the world (the Curious Case of Dean Winchester). And it was lovely to see both those things come to completion here. Like you, I'll be most interested in what this means for their relationship next season, and how negotiating an equal partnership is actually going to work.
I look forward to your thoughts on Lisa! On one hand, I understand her letting Dean in her house for a brief while to grieve, because he did save her son. On the other hand, it seems...odd to me that she would let him stay there for some semi-permanent amount of time. There's potential for a lot of tension there (and not the good unresolved sexual kind, but the bad "why is this violently raised, grieving, and alcoholic man in a house with my child?" kind of tension.)
In conclusion: STAR GAZING.
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Thank you for not warning me! I, I kind of knew it was going to happen but this way my agony was more blissfully complete.
I ALSO FORGOT TO SAY IN MY POST, I was watching 5.16 saturday night with that same friend (actually, it was the first episode I watched after the finale that morning) and BURST INTO TEARS during the first scene in heaven, with teeny thirteen-year-old Sam and Dean's obvious joy, and knowing what becomes of them. I LOOK FORWARD TO MORE RANDOM SUDDEN CRYING JAGS OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS, SWAN SONG. D:
More horrible thoughts; Lucifer's prison is closed, shut off from the entire rest of the world, even hell. There's no point to Dean killing himself. Heaven or hell or earth, the same thing awaits him everywhere. Sam won't be waiting, will never find him in their shared heaven. There is no escape from or relief of what he's feeling. In a way, Dean is making a reciprocal sacrifice to keep Lucifer's cage shut, choosing every moment to keep on leaving that door shut, to continue to go on without Sam.
YEAH that is pretty much how I feel about that episode. A mixture of rapturous bliss and blistering agony, with a sprinkle of fearful speculation on top.
!! thank you. Ahahha yes, they were kind of a cocktease with this particular badly needed relationship development (False Idols, I believe). Poor show, Dean, making resolutions you don't keep! Which is part of why I think there could be some interesting watching gotten out of it next season. Dean managed to let him sacrifice himself for the world but that doesn't mean he's always going to be good about sharing his pain or not shoving Sam out of the way of monsters right off the bat. I don't think it's possible (and wouldn't want) for him to ever completely loose the urge to protect his little brother, but I think he needs to develop more of a willingness to rely on him. I for one would really like to see Dean learning to vent to Sam emotionally. I wonder if this is part of why we've suffered through been treated to so many scenes of Dean staring soulfully into the camera while his jaw trembles with silent pain; he can't confess his feelings to Sam, the only regular presence in his life, so the camera gets them instead.
Should I make a post? A lot of my thoughts are kind of in response to some people's bizarre reaction of WAHHH HE ABANDONED SAM FOR LISA which hahaha. Yeah I cannot imagine SUDDENLY INTRODUCING A LIVE-IN FATHER FIGURE LOL (as some people seem to be imagining) especially one as fucked-up as Dean right now would be in any way good for a (what? six? eight-year-old?).
Then there is the whole awkward issue with REALLY, IT IS ACTUALLY HER SON HE IS MOST INTERESTED IN STALKING and yeahhh.
But basically I think Lisa exists right now more for narrative convenience than anything. Which is interesting in of itself in terms of S6 speculation!
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I am still not sure how I feel about the fireworks scene! I understand why it would make you cry; I saw a clip of it a few days after the finale and teared up. But, at the same time, I kind of see that scene as being emblematic of Dean's weird objectification of his little brother, where Sam doesn't actually get to be a person but is instead this shining idol who represents all that is good and pure and wonderful in the world.
Which is, I think, the driving tension of 5.16, where Dean's desire to view Sam as this pure and perfect being slams right up against the reality of Sam as a person who is flawed, who has desires which Dean may not like/approve of (leaving for college, having his own life, etc). And the casting away of the amulet, for Dean, then represents this casting off of this conception of Sam. (Though, since Sam originally gave the amulet to Dean in a fit of hero worship, I wonder if it symbolizes the same thing for Sam?)
Show is always a cocktease, but they got there in the end, so I'm well pleased. And I'm excited to be able to rewatch season 5 knowing how everything plays out, because even while show is a retconning thief, the emotional groundwork is always beautifully laid out in advance.
I would also be very sad if Dean lost that protective urge. Watching Dean run around with bugged out eyes and shouting "SAMMY" is one of life's great pleasures. (Really though, who ever loses their protective urge when it comes to someone they love?) But de_nugis made some pretty brilliant observations that I think bode well for the new dynamic. Her full reaction to the finale is here (and pretty well worth reading), but I'll cp the parts relevant to our discussion:
Fourth, Sam and Dean and growing up and maturing and breaking cycles. I do NOT think that this season was about shedding the roles of older brother and younger brother and learning to be independent of each other. They won by being totally dependent on each other, and in ways that had matured but were still shaped by the fundamental dynamic of their relationship. Sam got through to Dean in Point of No Return not by acting as equal instead of younger brother but by combining mature equality with the role of younger brother: "You're still my big brother." "I didn't want to let you down." And I think the same thing happened for Dean in Swan Song. Yes, he allowed Sam to make his own decisions and (more important Winchester privilege) his own sacrifices, but he not only acknowledged that being Sam's protector was part of who he was, he went on being essential in that role. The moment in this episode that SLEW me was Dean's "It's OK, I'm here, I'm here, I'm not gonna leave you," reassuring a frightened Sam somewhere inside the Lucifer who was beating him up. I don't care if it was all-out, over-the-top sentimental, it SLEW me. This is still the Dean of that last gut-wrenching scene in AHBL I. The crucial difference isn't that he's not the older brother anymore or that he's learned to let go, it's that he truly is there with Sam (even when all the evidence points to Sam not being there), not in denial, "it's not even so bad" mode.
Dear God, but I hope Dean does learn to cry to Sam. And he has a long and sordid history of odd confidantes; Gordon, Castiel, etc because he can't show weakness to his little brother.
I think you should write it! I, at least, would read it and leave long, rambling, sleep-deprived comments about it. :D
Then there is the whole awkward issue with REALLY, IT IS ACTUALLY HER SON HE IS MOST INTERESTED IN STALKING
Oh, so true. And so tragic. D: Dean-cakes, why do you make my soul ache so?
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