Rewatch S6: Caged Heat (6.10)
Caged Heat! This will be different knowing what we know now...
Random points before we get started:
1)The clothes were easy in this episode. They wore the same stuff the whole time. The only thing I had to keep track of was when they took off their jackets.
2)This is possible the most controversial episode of S6, at least when it comes to the mentions and possible depictions of sexual-violence. I will probably piss people off in my handling of this delicate topic, but *shrug*
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Crowley on Crowley violence!!
"What should we use next speculum or something more exotic?"
-ewww...man, we really start early with that kind of talk in this episode.
"Iridium - rarer than hell. It would have been cheaper to drop a castle on you, but I think we can both agree, worth it."
-I've love to see a castle dropped on someone.
"You're late"
"Traffic was a bitch"
"One Ruguru"
-How the heck do Ruguru's know anything? I guess there must be an Alpha Ruguru somewhere, sleeping with people to impregnate them or itself...actually, hey, I know you have like the Alpha=father, Eve=MotherOfAll thing...but how come there are no Alpha females? That'd be cool. Though, I guess then Sam and Dean would have to kill them and the show would be accused of being misogynistic again. Man, damned if you do, damned if you don't, eh?
"I'm sorry, I know you're speaking, I can see your lips moving, but I can't understand what you're saying because I don't speak little bitch."
- Dean's face here is so hurt...it's kind of hilarious.
"We've been going on these freaking Crowley runs and it's not getting us anywhere. I mean, the only thing that's really changed is that now I need a daily rape shower."
-So, some people were up in arms even at this line - because apparently it's not cool to joke about rape-showers. I sort of took this line as a different way to say "I feel dirty." But, as we know from last episode, Dean is well acquainted with rape showers - and my rule book says that if you have personal experience with something, then you are allowed to joke about it. I sort of think there's this weird thing in society (and fandom) where saying the word "rape" is like saying "voldemort" or something...it's bizarre. Even fic warnings call it "non-con", um, ok...are you just trying to avoid getting flagged by some sort of weird rape-sensing-search-bot? It's just odd, is all I'm saying. On a completely unrelated note: I'm really glad that people warn for non-con, but I wish they WOULD call it rape for those, let's say...13/14 year olds who are just getting into fandom and might not know what non-con means. I was once scarred for life.
"What now?"
"I think I know who you could ask."
"Evil bitch"
"Keep sweet talking me, this could go a whole new direction."
-Oh, it seems we're sticking with the rape theme for the time being. After this episode, Meg will have kissed both Winchesters and their angel friend against their will. Though, Cas is the only one to kiss her back and seemingly enjoy it. But, I'm just saying, Meg molested Sam and Dean back in S1...so, her threats aren't exactly idle.
"She's running."
"Am I?"
"Judging by the level of flop-sweat..."
-What's with Sam and observing how people sweat?
"Crowly would want to hunt down all the Lucifer-loyalists now that he's big man on campus."
"How would you know?"
"It's what I would do."
-This reminds me of Canadian history, because after the US declared independence, a whole bunch of loyalists moved up to Canada and made life hell for the French-Canadians. I've noticed that French-Canadians can REALLY hold grudges....not to like, generalize or anything of course...it's not like I've met and interviewed every single French-Canadian.
"I apprenticed under Alistair in Hell just like your brother. So Dean, can I make Crowley do whatever I want?"
"Yeah, she can."
"It's a deal then. Hugs and puppies all around."
"You going to untie us?"
"Please, don't pretend you don't enjoy it."
-Again, we see how uncomfortable Dean is - how much Meg's words affect him here. Jensen does a superior job acting this, and I really think it's obvious that Dean is a former victim of sexual-assault.
"You going to kiss me?"
-Ibid. (That's fancy speak for "As above")
"You want to work with a demon again?"
"We're working with demons now. I'm doing this because I want to stop."
"She killed Ellen and Jo!"
"I know, but you can't look at this emotionally..."
-The thing is, I ALWAYS forget that Meg was the one that killed Ellen and Jo - geez, me. This is HORRIBLE. I can't believe Dean can even still function what with the amount of RAGE that must be inside of him. God. Now I hate her even more.
"No you listen! I don't care what your dealing with up in heaven, you owe me!"
"You may not care, but believe me-"
"I'm sorry do you think we're here to talk this out?"
"I can't just-"
"If you don't help us, I will hunt you down and kill you!"
"Will you, boy? How?"
-That last line of Misha's is so goddamn sexy...boy.
"I don't know yet, but I will look until I find out, and I don't sleep."
"You need help, Sam"
"I need your help."
-And this is true. Sam needs help, and Castiel SHOULD be the one to help him, seeing as he was the one that screwed Sam up in the first place. YES, it was a kindness to resurrect him, but he did it wrong. It's technically Cas' fault that Sam's a sociopath, and you can't just accidentally create something like that and then pretend like Sam's better off that way.
"You actually showed. Well Sam, I owe you a chicken dinner. What happened?"
"No big. This is what friends do for each other."
-I like that Sam lies to Dean here. Because seriously, Castiel SHOULD have just shown. I know people are all pitying Castiel and saying that Dean only ever called him when he needed him and then didn't help when Castiel needed him - but the truth of the matter is that Castiel wasn't coming to Dean unless Castiel needed Dean for something, and even then, Castiel wasn't telling Dean what his REAL problems were. Cas totally dug his own grave on this one, and I don't actually have very much sympathy for him. I have sympathy insofar as it's clear to me that Castiel now regrets his actions and realizes his mistakes, but that doesn't LESSEN his mistakes or actions nor does the simple act of regret atone for it all. As my mother says, "what do flowers have to do with it?"
"It's not working. Crowley is hidden from me."
- Is he though? IS HE?!
"What do you want?"
"We want to know where Crowley is."
"If I even knew, why would I tell you?"
"Because you're our grandfather."
"Samuel, I need to get my soul back."
"Who says you can get it back?"
"Me."
"Look, I'd like to help you, but I can't-"
"This is your grandson's soul!"
"I can't!"
- Now it's Dean trying to play the family card, and it's not going to work - because family isn't automatic, it's a choice, and Samuel has already made his choice.
"We're your blood. If you don't want to help us, I can't make you. I just want to know why. What is Crowley holding over you? You owe us that."
*shows picture*
"Mom?"
"He's going to get her back for me."
"Crowley's going to bring Mom back from the dead?"
"Don't tell me you don't want her back. You know what's the main difference between us? You know how to live without her."
"Look, I know how you feel."
"No, you don't, she's my daughter, and she's dead..."
- Yeah, and Sam is Dean's EVERYTHING. Also, I think this is a matter of saving the people who are already alive vs. the people who are long since dead. Mind you, I can see Samuel's point too - for him, Mary isn't long-since dead. He was resurrected and told that his girl was dead a year ago and that he could bring her back...so, yeah, fine, I can see where he's coming from, but even he has to see that this is a ethical quagmire of misery.
"Trust me, don't go down that road."
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying stop trying! It's going to go nowhere good. Samuel, I know we've had our differences, but I'm your grandson, and I'm telling you that this is wrong for so many reasons."
"You hypocrit."
"I'm asking you to learn from our mistakes! Doing this! This is how the badguy gets us every time, it's our achilles heel! Apparently it runs in the family! We will figure something else out, okay?"
"I'm sorry, Dean, I-"
"Fine! Bring her back, but what are you going to tell her? You going to tell her that you made a deal with a demon? That you wouldn't help out her sons?!"
"Alright, that's enough! Just get out."
- Dean's right on this one. Mary would kick her father's ass for the rest of eternity...or just turn around and stab him. That's what I'd do, and I don't even have kids.
"It's very complex"
"Mmhm"
"If the pizzaman truly loves this babysitter, why does he keep slapping her rear? Perhaps she's done something wrong."
- I love the way Misha delivers that last sentence. Methinks I see where Castiel's kinks are.
"You don't watch porn in a room full of dudes, and you don't talk about it. Just turn it off."
-Obviously, me and Dean haven't been to the same parties.
"Why are you here, Samuel?"
"It's what Mary would want."
-Yeah, that was too easy.
"You saw him! He was more interested in killing us, then getting the job done. I just did all of us a favour."
-I like my original comment in my quick reaction post (which I'm sure I was drunk for) - "but first Sam totally takes out the demon that was eye-fucking Dean earlier...claiming that he was more interested in killing them than he was in killing Crowley....are you sure it wasn't just because he was eye-fucking your brother, Sam?"
"I'm not sure retrieving Sam's soul is wise."
"Wait, what? Why?"
"I want him to survive."
"What are you talking about?"
"Sam's soul has been locked in the cage with Michael and Lucifer for more than a year, and they have nothing to do but take their frustrations out on him. If we try to force that mutilated thing down Sam's gullet, we have no idea what will happen. It could be catastrophic."
"You mean he dies?"
"I mean he doesn't - paralysis, insanity, psychic pain so profound that he's locked inside himself for the rest of his life."
"But you're saying you don't know anything for sure, I mean, he could be fine."
"He could be, yes. But I sincerely doubt it."
"Well if he's not fine, then you fix him."
"Dean, I wouldn't know where to begin."
"Then you figure it out, Cas, come on! The guy's a freakin' replicant. He needs his soul. Look, we get it back, and if there are complications then we'll figure out a way to deal with those too."
"Of course....or we fail, and Sam suffers horrifically."
-This is a very interesting conversation. We know that Castiel considers Sam his friend - yet, is he really dissuading Dean because he fears for Sam's wellbeing, or is he trying to stop Dean from interfering with his and Crowley's plans? For that matter, if he IS truly concerned for Sam, is it not better to end Sam's eternal torment in hell for a non-eternal torment on earth? I mean, even if he were locked inside himself for the rest of his life, at least he wouldn't still be in the cage for eternity. I'm just sure I really see the logic here. Is having a sociopathic non-Sam while Sam's soul screams in the cage somehow better than caring for a hell-broken Sam? To me, as to Dean, this isn't and shouldn't be a question. It's like if your brother was a POW somewhere and you said "Oh, just leave him, I don't want to deal with the PTSD." It's absurd. But, perhaps Castiel doesn't understand how profoundly changed Sam is - how this is NOT Sam. Castiel doesn't have a soul, after all. He has his grace, but grace seems to only be power and not personality...actually, grace seems to deaden personality somehow.
"This all seem a little too easy to you?"
"Way too easy."
-Agreed.
"What was that?"
"I learned that from the pizza man."
"A+ for you. I feel so...clean."
-That kiss WAS pretty hot, and I love that it makes Meg feel "clean" rather than the usual 'dirty' talk. :P
-I also think this was a sign that Castiel was in a weird/bad place - it's like he's testing his limits almost. "Well, I crossed that line - I wonder if I can cross this next one...and hey, since I crossed those lines, I might as well cross this one too, I mean...it's just another line." We've all been there...usually it involves kissing.
*Samuel banishes Cas*
Dean: "Cas!"
-Dean is truly panicked and concerned for Cas here - which is sad to me, because Cas probably had planned to get banished.
"Sam?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm standing in pee!"
"Consider yourself lucky."
-Metaphor for their times in hell? Hahahaha oh, my sense of humour is dark.
"If you want forgiveness find a priest."
"I just wanted you to understand."
"Oh, I understand. You're talking about putting blood first - which is funny, because you sound just like my dad. The difference is he actually did!"
"I AM putting blood first."
"Oh, give me a break."
"Mary's my blood! My daughter! Don't come at me like I sold you out, Dean, you sold out your own mother. It was her or Sam, and you chose Sam, plain and simple."
-This is such weird logic on the part of Samuel. Don't get me wrong, I can see where he's coming from - Sam is currently a sociopath and Samuel has never known him as anything else, so why would Dean be more concerned with saving his brother than his mother? But the fact is that it's not like Dean was ever given a choice between Sam and Mary, like Samuel makes it sound. And again, we come right back to the problem of: Do you save the person who is (at least in some part) alive and standing next to you, or do you save the person who has been dead for 28 years?
"Oh that is such crap. You want to know what really happened? You chose a demon over your own grandsons!"
"See it how you want. I don't even know what Sam is, and you want me to protect him. And you? You're a stranger. No tell me, what exactly are you supposed to be to me?"
"I'll tell you who I am - I'm the guy you never want to see again, because I'll make it out of here, trust me. The next time you see me, I'll be there to kill you."
"Don't think there's going to be a next time."
"Whatever gets you through the night."
- I love this exchange. It reminds me of that great line in S5's Dark Side of the Moon, where one of the Hunters says "Do you really want Dean Winchester on your ass?" I love that you can visibly see that Dean scares the hell out of Samuel here - that Samuel realizes just how serious a threat Dean is making. It spells the end of any chance that they had of ever being "family"...all this talk about them being Samuel's grandson's is Dean giving Samuel is one way out. He does the same with Cas at the end of the season - "I can start (or keep) considering you family if you want me to, or you can walk away right now and make an enemy. It's your choice." Back in S3, Dean even told Bella that if she had just asked for help, they would have helped her. It's not hard to stay on Dean's good side, even if you royally screw up.
- I got off track there. What I meant to say was: I love Dean being a scary bad ass who will KILL YOU.
It's nice to see an actress with a smaller cup-size. - Uh, yeah, so that's actually my entire notes on the Meg-is-naked-and-strapped-to-a-table scene.
"Enjoy."
"Alright, alright, Shawshank's a great flick, but let's skip the shower scene, huh?"
-Again, why does Dean's mind go to rape-scenes? Not hard to guess.
Holy crap, Soulless!Sam with a mouth full of his own blood is sexy - uh, yeah, so that's my notes there. As much as I love our Sammy, I also really really love seeing Soulless!Sam go all bad ass "I'm going to chew my own wrist open and then smile at you."
"What are you laughing at?"
"Dean Winchester's behind you."
-Another awesome line.
Ok, I will say that the first time I watched this episode, I did NOT think that Meg was being vaginally raped with the knife. Someone mentioned it afterward though, and now since the idea is in my head, I kind of do see it. However, I also see that if she were being vaginally raped, it would be much easier for Christian to do that while standing OVER her, not going under her as he does. What I thought he was doing the first time was carving up her back and letting gravity pull her insides out or something. Now, that doesn't make any sense with her being able to walk around afterward, so maybe the raping makes more sense. In any case, I will stand by my original statement of: I don't see anything wrong with this. Supernatural is a horror show - what is happening to meg is horrific. I do NOT think they are deliberately trying to make it sexy, but hey, she is naked, I'll give you that....when Sam pictured himself strapped to the torture table, he was still clothed...but the fact remains that the only two times we've SEEN the torture table is when girls are strapped to it - and they're naked. So, yeah, I can certainly see both sides of this argument, but for me personally, I don't have a problem with it. (Which is actually kind of odd, because I usually can't read/watch rape.)
*Crowley goes on about how Sam shouldn't want his soul back, because it is broken*
Meg: "Sam, I hate to say it, but he's right."
-You hate to say it? Really Meg? Do you like Sam's soul? I thought this comment was interesting. Meg herself is an interesting villain, because she has been around for so long, and has known the boys for so long...yet she only pops in and out. I also like her as a villain because, besides the initial subterfuge, she's always just been a straight-up villain. There's been no deals, alliances, or false friendships.
"Castiel, haven't seen you all season, are you the cavalry now?"
-I didn't write down this exchange, but I do like how listening to the dialogue now, it's all about how Crowley hasn't seen Cas and putting that distance between them.
How the heck did they fake that death though? They should go on the road! Crowley and Cas: Master Illusionists.
"Well, she's smart. I was going to kill her too. 'Course, I would have given you an hour with her first."
"Why would I want that?"
-This is another thing people get all upset over, because they see it as Dean somehow saying that he was going to give permission for Castiel to rape Meg (which would be raping Jimmy and Meg's vessel too) - but geez, it's a JOKE. (And please don't tell me that it's a tasteless joke, that is not the issue here). Dean said it because he wanted to get Castiel to give him that adorable "I don't understand you" face. He didn't say it because he meant it. It's funny, but sometimes I've noticed that fans (and I'm sure I'm guilty of this as well) seem to take everything every character says as the truth and completely serious...even when it's later revealed that they are lying, people are like "oh man, that was such a retcon, because before he said that..." It's not a ret-con if the character was LYING before, jesus people. So, yes, JOKE, JOKING, ONLY A TASTELESS JOKE!
"Crowley was right, it's not going well for me upstairs."
"If there's anything we can do-"
"There isn't. I wish circumstances were different, much of the time, I'd rather be here."
"Cas, you've got a big steaming pile on your plate, there's no need for apologies. We're your friends."
"Listen, Sam, we'll find another way."
- And here we go: Dean offers to help, Cas refuses him. Dean is completely right later in the season when he tells Castiel that "I was here. Where were you?" when Castiel asks why Dean wasn't there for him before. Maybe I'm being way too harsh on him, but yeah, like I said, own-grave-digging skills - Castiel has them.
"You really want to help? Prison full of monsters, we can't just leave them - can't let them go."
-I guess those monsters were just moved to a different prison and continued to be tortured.
"You know, when angels and demons agree on something, call me nuts, but I pay attention."
"You say this now? After we practically died trying-"
"Exactly, we almost got ourselves killed. How many times do we risk our asses for this? Enough's enough. I don't think I want it back."
"Sam, you don't even know what you're saying."
"No, I'm saying something you don't like. You obviously care a lot, but I think I'm better off without it."
"You're wrong. You don't know how wrong you are."
"I'm not sure about that."
"Sam, don't walk away. Sam!"-When I was a teenager, I used to constantly dramatically walk out of the room after saying something, and then realize that I didn't have anything to do in the new location, and I'd have to just stand there like an idiot until enough time had passed where I could re-enter the room with people in it and not feel stupid. I still felt stupid. My point is: Where is Sam even going?
-I can see both sides here. Sam DOESN'T know how wrong he is, because he's incapable of seeing the benefit of a soul, or acknowledging how messed up he is without one. On the other hand, just because he has no soul, does that mean that he's not a person? Soulless!Sam has to be destroyed in order for Sam to return...or, well, at least "absorbed" - what's the right decision on that?
Supernatural - so many debatable questions about morality.
Well, that was fun! Please try not to re-open the can of worms that was opened the first time we all watched this episode? As I recall, I ended up doing several posts about those issues and talked them to death. If you really feel the need to restate your opinion, go ahead, but I won't be engaging in any of the debate myself.