6.3 blather
I've watched this season so far with a profound sense of unease. This is mostly due to the presence of Sam. Every episode makes me nervous because I have no way to predict how things are going to go. Because Sam is suddenly an unknown variable in the equation that throws everything into disarray.
I think that's important because I can't imagine it's not deliberate. And I think that these disparate issues that have been raised so far--the crisis in heaven, the upsurge in monster activity, and the weirdness of dick!Sam--point pretty clearly to the idea of breaking boundaries, rules, and foundations. And living in a world without those things is terrifying, as anyone who's ever had to do so knows.
This makes me think about the title card and the image of smashing glass/ice/salt--a destroyed barrier which implies limitations that are impermeable but able to be destroyed. At the root of these three things is this idea of the shattering of foundations. Taking Sam away from Dean, and from the viewers (it's been recently brought to my attention that "a character is a relationship", so yeah, the viewers are invested in him and they are being denied...deliberately) lies at the crux of all these things, since the story is still about Sam and Dean, as individuals and as a unit. Their relationship is screwed up, the world makes no sense....also there are all these other catastrophic happenings related to the world-threatening problems, the monsters and the civil war. These things are all tied together since it's all happening at the same time, and probably for the same reason--it's fallout from the failed apocalypse.
The 'rule-breaking' thing has been stated explicitly, so I feel comfortable running with it. My next question is: how exactly is Raphael going to bring about the Apocalypse, if Michael and Lucifer are locked in a cage that apparently could only be opened with the death of a demon who's now dead? Maybe he will, maybe he has some other plan. Maybe tearing holes in the world and bringing out greater and more terrible versions of the monsters we've seen in the past is the plan. Maybe not. We'll see. (That's probably a little too pat--I hope it's something more complex than that.)
One thing I think is important that's getting overlooked a lot is the fact that Dean has changed too. A lot. More subtly, and much less obviously than Sam, but he's a different guy than the one we were introduced to in s1--different even than the character he was last season. This might be important. I'm wondering about the renewed assault by these monsters on the world--are we going to see a blurring of lines between the world of "normal" and that of the supernatural? In that case, maybe we won't be seeing Dean returning to Ben and Lisa, but rather them coming to him.
Ultimately there are probably 2 ways the thing with Sam can go--kill him or save him. Figuratively speaking. Basically it can turn out that he's irreparably changed, old!Sam is gone forever...and that in this case the things that were broken by the apocalypse being averted (including heaven...) can't be fixed. Everything's been destroyed and at best people will have to learn to live with that reality as best they can. This actually kind of reflects the true nature of the world--but since when has "Supernatural" ever reflected the true nature of the world? Seriously.
The other option is that Sam can be fixed/saved/brought to his senses. This would imply an arc wherein everything can be in some way repaired, or at least some new order might be able to be constructed from the wreckage of the old. I tend to lean toward this one more because what other reason could the writers have for making Sam so patently unlikable this season, if not to at some point use the huge emotional impact getting old!Sam back (in whatever form) would have for viewers?
The other other option is that maybe they're going to give us that huge super-powered final ultimate battle of ultimate destiny between Sam and Dean that they kept promising but never delivered. Which would be sad, but also kind of goddamned awesome.
There's room for any variation of the above themes, of course. It's too early to make any real predictions. Guess I'll be tuning in next ep. Heh.
I wonder when Castiel will be back...?