Mirror Mirror on the Wall: Chapter 12 - On Sam Out of the Box Redux
Sam Out of the Box - Redux:
Just as Mr. Wyatt opened the door in the midst of Sam's despair, so did Ruby. Just as it took someone outside the Winchester family system to challenge the view of the validity of "Keep Sam safe," so did it take an outsider to challenge the Winchester family value of "Reject all things supernatural."
In John's perception, all things supernatural were evil. They were to be shunned and destroyed.
ADAM: Our father was a monster. Why, because of what he ate? He never hurt anyone, Sam, living, anyway.
KATE: No, he was no monster, but the thing that killed him was. A monster named John Winchester.
Jump the Shark
Becoming a supernatural entity, then, for his family, meant that Sam was necessarily evil.
Ruby challenged this assumption and, in doing so, opened the door to Sam's box. The key to Sam was that he wanted to retain the core of his goodness.
SAM: What I do most of them survive. Look, I've saved more people in the last 5 months than we save in a year.
DEAN: That what Ruby wants you to think? Huh? The way she tricked you into using your powers?
Metamorphosis
Dean wanted him to retain that core of goodness by putting aside his supernatural nature, choosing to not go down that path. But with Dean's death, Sam learned that choosing not to acknowledge or use his powers did absolutely nothing to prevent the fact that his supernatural nature drew those he loved into the path of danger. He had no control over that.
With Dean's death, Sam was forced to accept what he was. He was different. He was not fully human. He could not pretend that he was, anymore.
SAM: Yeah, but the normal rules don't really apply to us, do they.
DEAN: We're no different than anybody else.
SAM: I'm infected with demon blood. You've been to Hell. Look, I know you want to think of yourself as Joe the Plumber, Dean, but you're not. Neither am I. Sooner you accept that, the better off you're going to be.
Death Takes a Holiday
Ruby challenged Sam's assumptions that he must "reject all things supernatural," that exploring the abilities allowed by his demon-blood necessarily meant that he would have to sacrifice the parts of him that are Good.
Mr. Wyatt - The Outsider
The point is, there may be three or four big choices that shape someone's whole life, and you need to be the one that makes them, not anyone else.
After School Special
Ruby - The Outsider
I Know What You Did Last Summer
SAM: I'm pulling demons out of innocent people.
DEAN: Use the knife!
SAM: The knife kills the victim. What I do most of them survive. Look, I've saved people in the last 5 months than we save in a year.
Metamorphosis
In both situations, after a period of despair and brush with self-destruction, Sam decided to take his own risks, those that he finds acceptable. He's again rejected the idea that it is appropriate to be the object of "Keep Sam safe." Sam's the one choosing which parts of himself it is acceptable to discard and those that must be preserved.
Just as Dean sacrificed his humanity to preserve his family - going to Hell to save Sam's life, Sam of Season 4 is headed down that same path. With Dean's death, Sam learned that lesson that the supernatural can tear everything you know, love, and care about from you, that lesson that Dean learned at 4 years of age. Just as Dean was willing to sacrifice all parts of who he was, all the way down to the essential goodness of who he was, so, by example, is Sam.
CHUCK: I mean, sucking blood, you've got to know it's wrong.
SAM: It scares the hell out of me, man. I mean I feel it inside of me. I wish to God I could stop.
The Monster At the End of This Book
You're scared, Dean. You're scared 'cause your year is running out and you're still going to Hell, and you're freaked.
DEAN: And how do you know that?
SAM: Because I know you.
DEAN: Really?
SAM: Yeah, because I've been following your around my entire life. I mean I've been looking up to you since I was four, Dean, studying you and trying to be just like my big brother. So, yeah, I know you, better than anyone else in the entire world. And this, is exactly how you act when you're terrified.
Fresh Blood
And so, just as Jess' death called forth all three coping responses from Sam, so did Dean's death:
Feelings of guilt, responsibility and despair:
Jess. Oh God, I should have protected you.
Wendigo
I don't want candy.
I Know What You Did Last Summer
How could you leave her alone to die?
Bloody Mary
Does it, all rest on my shoulders?
The Monster at the End of This Book
That he hides.
Look, you’re my brother and I’d die for you, but there are some things I need to keep to myself.
Bloody Mary
Something major must have happened while I was downstairs, 'cause I come back and you're BFF with a demon? I Know What You Did Last Summer
And projects outward as rage so as to not fall into despair.
It’s the only thing I can think about.
Wendigo
Lilith's head on a plate, bloody
Wishful Thinking
And so, to cope with Dean's death and the helplessness to end that cycle of danger and loss his nature brings to those he loves, Sam sacrificed The Sam that Was, both his hope in the last remnants of his innocence and his hope in his humanity.
The Yellow-Eyed Demon was the first to attempt to make a weapon of Sam. His own father took up the task after Mary's death. And after Dean's death, Ruby, the weapon-maker, offered Sam power, the means by which to accomplish his goal of exorcising his rage and despair. And this time, Sam chose to take the power offered.
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Next to come: What goes around comes around: Bringing it around full circle from where we started. How John's attempts to protect his family affect Sam and Dean's struggles in Season 4.
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Chapter 1: On the Siren's Call
Chapter 2: On John the Man
Chapter 3: On John the Father
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Chapter 4: On Dean The Motherless Child
Chapter 5: On Dean the Heart of the Family
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Chapter 6: On Sam Born of Love and Loss
Chapter 7: On Sam in the Box
Chapter 8: On Sam out of the Box
Chapter 9 : On Sam Captive on a Carousel of Time
Chapter 10: On Sam Power Can Be Taken, But Not Given
Chapter 11: On Sam From Here Forward
Chapter 12: On Sam Out of the Box Redux
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Chapter 13: On SamnDean Putting Away Childish Things
Chapter 14: On SamnDean Triangles are a Demon's Best Friend
Chapter 15: On SamnDean Stop the Carousel I Want to Get Off
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credit goes to
oxoniensis and marishna of summerskin for the screencaps