Little Hairless Apes. Thoughts on 5x04
LOVE.
First, amazing moments.
"The voice says I'm running out of minutes!" Oh, Castiel!
"Do You Love Me?" Another fucking genius SPN musical moment right up there with Renegade in Nightshifter. Ben Edlund, you delightful pixie of horrific juxtaposition.
Castiel and his students of transcental philosophy/lovemates.
Samifer's white softness. The way you could almost just believe him.
FutureDean essentially becoming Alec running TC if Alec had to deal with a zombie virus.
The Midnight of the Garden of Good and Evil references.
A lot of other things.
I need to rewatch and track some of this thread regarding humanity and staying human. Which has kind of been running through the series from earlier than I thought. John needing Sam and Dean to keep him human. The whole concept of possession has provided the concept that supernaturality and humanity are equally liminal states. The value of humanity, .versus quasi-immortality, i.e. the "better club." The power provided by the angels, demons, monsters, etc versus the flexible, emotionally resilient, protective nature of humanity. I think that Castiel can manage a short-term humanity but only with a better living through chemistry sort of approach. Chuck no longer has his ear to the angelic radio. What he could never completely understand saved lives and now he's on TP patrol, as blind and clueless as everyone else. I am excited to see what this is about. Kripke's humanism warms my heart. I want to say more, but I'm tired.
Sam's desire to prove his desire to fight against Lucifer, to be in the fight, to earn Dean's friendship and trust, to erase some of the pain and damage he wrought...his desire for redemption. I think that plot is one that I've been hoping they'd introduce for Sam. I'm not looking for Sam to kneel and grovel and keen and rend his soul. I want him to look squarely at what's been done, and see his stake in not just repairing his relationship, and not just making himself "worthy" of Dean, but in tearing off these mantles and labels and the crispy, lardy fate!batter that's encrusted his spirit. I want to see him renew his sense of independent self who has a powerful, loving bond with his brother and gifts and goodness and a path to help save humanity. A sense of his own values again, liberty, justice, and the American way and all that jazz. That sense of justice and liberty are the very things that Lucifer has been, and I imagine will be, successfully appealing to Sam through. He can do that by perverting these sensibilities, twisting them so that being alone is power because no one can understand the wrongs that one has suffered. Lucifer is fucking emo. And I think that appeals to Sam. The "darkness" he has within. But all at once, he's more than that and stronger than that and he has reasoning beyond that.
I've seen, briefly, questions about why Castiel would turn out like he did in 5 years. I thought it was more than clear. I say forget the angels' disappearance was a sort of familial death for Cas, perhaps, but more than that, I think he was in agony with his failure to find God, in being left behind, as he said, helpless. His rebellion becoming meaningless, the sorrow his soul bore, and now Lucifer is embodied and the damage never ending. I think debauchery is a logical response. Absinthe is a drink for forgetting. It can eat away at memory. With Castiel, I imagine he's got thousands of years to blot out. And the amphetamines to cobble himself back together to serve Dean. A place, a being, a plan that he could put the shards of his faith in. Dean was a beat to march to, and Castiel, a soldier to the end, could stand in that haze and let Dean determine where he was going.