SPN 8.17 part two

[littlehollyleaf]

<< back to part one

Crossing the line

From this point on... *deep breath* Everything is AMAZING okay? GOD.

Cas asks Dean to hand him the tablet and there's this amazing moment of instant tension, emphasised by some nice, traditional tension building music, and this shot:



And all at once Dean and Cas are on opposite sides in a way they've really never been before. Yes, they were at odds in S06, but they were still fighting for the same thing. Here they are standing opposite each other in a situation where they each want the direct opposite to the other-Cas wants the tablet for Heaven and the angels, Dean wants the tablet for Kevin and humanity. They are standing in opposition not as individuals, not as Dean and Cas holding different opinions about how to achieve the same goal. They are standing opposite each other as binary opposites, representing their race. They are standing opposite each other as human and angel.

Two separate pieces on opposing sides of a chess board.

Right here in this moment Dean is forcibly reminded of the very thing he tries so hard to forget and/or ignore about Cas-that Cas isn't human, that there is a very real divide between them. Nicely emphasised by that table positioned between them in this shot.

I honestly don't know why I find this quite as exciting as I do, but this ALONE gives me tingles. Dean and Cas facing off across that line that's been between them all along *shivers* IDK! I guess I'm excited to have Dean for once seriously acknowledging that, really, Cas should be the enemy, he should have been all along, and what is there stopping Cas from being such, from turning on Dean?

What is there? What is it between them that allows them to cross that line of opposition and meet in the middle, to throw away the chess board, scatter the pieces and make their own rules? Oh but there's SO MUCH. As we will see.

(And FUCK, I've just realised Sam and Meg were paralleling his scene overground, because Meg should be the enemy too, she and Sam should be standing in opposition to each other, what is there stopping Meg from turning on Sam? Well, perhaps the exact same thing that ends up stopping Cas... but let's not jump too far ahead)

So, there's a beautifully awkward back and forth where Cas tries to convince Dean to hand over the tablet by pretending to agree to take it to Kevin, while Dean believes none of it but is kind of adorably reluctant to just come out and say so and comes up with various pathetic reasons why he should be the one to take the tablet to Kevin and not Cas. Well, adorable, but also about self-preservation-if he out and out refuses Cas the tablet it's pretty clear that will be a declaration of war at this point. So really Dean is trying to avoid a fight.

Back in Naomi-land Cas is expressing his own reluctance.

Cas: I can reason with Dean. He's a good man.

He's a good man *cries* After everything, EVERYTHING. After being hurt, emotionally and physically, by Dean, after Dean tried to kill him, left him alone in a mental asylum, after seeing Dean kill and torture innocents, after EVERYTHING-Cas still knows Dean as a 'good man,' still believes that of him *clutches heart*

But Naomi is resolute. The order is simple. Kill him.

Now, everyone and his dog called it a mile off, all the way back when Naomi was first introduced, that it would eventually come to this. Naomi's control vs. Cas' bond with Dean. I might even argue it was too predictable, if it wasn't everything I ever wanted!

Cas: I can't let you take that, Dean.
Dean: Can't or won't?
Cas: Both.

I'm sure there's something super significant to say about this exchange, but I haven't quite worked it out yet. Because Dean's question lays out the situation perfectly-broken down to its essence it's asking is Cas acting of his own free will (he 'won't' let Dean take the tablet), or is he not (he 'can't' let Dean take the tablet)? But Cas answers 'both.' Which relates, I suppose, to how Naomi's brainwashing does allow a confusing mix of free will and manipulation.

Doesn't tell Dean much though. Makes you wonder why he bothered asking. Or perhaps it tells him everything. Perhaps he was expecting a free minded Cas to answer 'won't' and any other reply is evidence enough that Cas is not of his own mind...

In which I start getting incoherent, sorry!

In any case, it's this exchange that pushes Dean to cut to the chase and force the issue, to address openly the fact he doesn't trust Cas and why-by bringing up Cas getting out of Purgatory and how Dean doesn't trust that Cas doesn't know the truth of it.

More than that, though, and what makes my heart flutter a little-Dean actually offers the tablet. If Cas proves he's really Cas, Dean is willing to give the tablet up, because even though Cas has been lying, Dean still wants to trust him, he is willing to listen to and accept the flip side of the story as he knows it. Which is just, oh, the very opposite of S06 isn't it? Where Dean wouldn't stop for a second to listen to reason about why Cas was working with Crowley.

Although there's an element of desperation there too. Like in Purgatory, where Dean had a whole reason for why Cas ran figured out in his head and just needed Cas to agree with the story he'd come up with and was willing to forgive and forget, because he couldn't handle the idea Cas might have left him by choice. Just like he couldn't handle the idea that Cas might have stayed in Purgatory out of choice, because that would mean he choose to leave Dean, so Dean would rather believe he let Cas down.

Hmmm, yes. Here Dean is similarly jumping ahead in his mind, in his mind he's already forgiven Cas, he already trusts him again, he's already imagining giving Cas the tablet and the two of them being on the same side again, because he can't handle the thought that Cas would choose to oppose him, would choose not to answer his prayers because he doesn't care about Dean.

So all he needs is for Cas to give him the truth about how he got out of Purgatory. He's not gonna be mad, he doesn't even care what the truth is it seems, he's willing to accept whatever shitty secret Cas might have been keeping, whatever dark way he made it out of Purgatory, because having Cas back on side and with him is more important. Because nothing is worse than the thought that Cas might be lost to him. And if Cas refuses to tell him, then that's his answer-he's either lost to Dean because he's choosing not to share the information, choosing not to let Dean be part of his life, or he's lost to Dean because he's being manipulated and isn't himself.

I wonder, then, what Dean was thinking when Cas dropped the angel blade. Did he honestly think for a moment that Cas might choose to kill him for the tablet, or was that the point that removed any lingering doubt and confirmed Cas was not himself, because Dean knew/believed that even if Cas were to choose to leave him or oppose him, he would never actually choose to kill him? (not necessarily because Dean believes that much in his own self-worth, but because he knows Cas isn't the type of person/angel to kill or get violent when he doesn't have to?)

Gosh I got a bit bogged down there. Perhaps don't take any of that babble too seriously.

Unexpected sympathy

While Dean frets about Cas' free will, Meg mocks Sam for hitting a dog and stopping. Hee :) This is why I like Meg. Despite the mocking and referring to Amelia as a 'unicorn' though, Meg says of Sam's feelings towards her that she 'kind of gets it.' Which was my first real instance of wow when it came to Meg this episode because, yeah, not expecting her feelings for Cas to run so deep. Before she can elaborate, some demons arrive to crash the party...

Battle of wills

And Dean is appealing to Cas in a completely different way now, because, whatever the reason, Dean is now 100% sure this is NOT CAS advancing on him anymore. He speaks to him liked he would someone possessed-'if you're in there and you can hear me, you don't have to do this!' 'Cas, fight this, this is not you!'

And I LOVE that he's so sure, that from this point on he never wavers in this, he never once shows any sign of fearing this is really Cas somehow-from this point on Cas is a victim in Dean's eyes and any suggestion that Dean might be mad at Cas and blaming Cas or even fearful of Cas for what he's doing is gone. Everything Dean says and does from this point is working towards not stopping Cas from hurting him but freeing Cas from outside control and stopping Cas from being hurt/damaged/changed/lost because of it. Dean does not say 'don't do this to me' he says 'you don't have to do this, because you're better than this.' He is more concerned about what this control is doing to Cas than what Cas, under the control, might do to him ♥

Plus we have all of that intercut with Cas' internal anguish as he battles against Naomi. And oh god. 'I won't hurt Dean' Cas insists. This after killing THOUSANDS of Deans, after finally managing to do it completely without emotion. Less than 2 seconds into a fight with the real Dean and he's already breaking, all that carefully trained suppression of emotion failing him, fuck know how many hours, days, weeks of work, hardly worth a damn.

And it affects him outside his mind too. 'What have you done to me, Naomi?' The line that had me fist pumping because YES! Now Dean has a name for Cas' 'off' behaviour since Purgatory, now he has a name for why his angel has been distant and lost to him all this time, and that name isn't 'Cas,' it's someone else's, someONE who he can find and fight and punish. I was happy about that :) And I felt like it gave Dean strength, knowing the name of who/what he and Cas were really fighting against.

Not that I hate Naomi, let me make it clear-I don't want Dean rush off to kill her out of vengeance or anything like that. I WOULD like a good shouting match and perhaps a fight between them :D But Naomi is not a cardboard cut villain, I don't want her demonised.

Speaking of Naomi's complexities-

Naomi: What have I done to you?! Do you have any idea what it's like out there? There is blood everywhere! And it's on your hands! After everything you did, to us, to Heaven. I fixed you, Castiel. I fixed you!

Confirmation there that Naomi was trying to 'fix' Cas, as I spoke about earlier.

Which, of course, ties into a couple of other things. Dean insists of Cas' deal with Crowley-'damn it Cas, we can fix this,' gaining Cas' reply of-'Dean, it's not broken!' And, of course, Dean's infamous shouting at a mentally and emotionally unstable Cas-'nobody cares that you're broken!'

Damn, there's so many different ways to take this word play I don't know where to start.

Naomi is proud that she, personally, has fixed Cas. And she did it without his consent, barely even with his knowledge. She deemed him broken and worked to fix him without even consulting him. Dean, at least, allows a 'we' into the equation. 'We' can fix this-Dean wanted him and Cas to fix the broken situation together, offered Cas the option of fixing himself. Did Dean do marginally better, then?

What Dean and Naomi both have in common when it comes to this issue, however, is that they both labelled Cas broken (Dean did it twice!) without allowing Cas any input into that description. They deemed him broken and in need of fixing, when Cas, all times, saw it quite differently.

Although, similarly, in all cases Dean and Naomi have valid points. Cas working with Crowley behind the boys' backs was a bad idea, Cas had handled the situation badly. Cas running away from his guilt and all forms of conflict as a means of dealing with his leviathan and Hell trauma was not something Dean and Sam really had much time to deal with when Dick Roman was about to take over the world and was perhaps not the best way for Cas to deal either. And much of Heaven's blood is on Cas' hands.

I don't know where to take all this really, it's a jumble of the same word with different meanings.

Something I have stuck in my head as a result of all this, though, is a snippet of imagined dialogue between Dean and Naomi. Naomi is yelling at Dean, blaming him for ruining Cas, she insists he's not what he was, that 'he's broken,' and Dean answers back 'I don't care.' Taking his once harsh words and turning them into something positive-it doesn't matter that Cas is broken, everyone's kind of broken, that's what life does. But if we work together we can fix each other.

edit: Slightly more coherent musings on ideas of being 'fixed' and being 'broken' can be found here :) Although the conclusion there is perhaps more that Cas ISN'T broken, and therefore can't be fixed, because there's nothing to fix. Whereas... idk, I do think I'm more of the opinion that we're all broken parts and life is about us trying to work out how to put ourselves together. IDK! This has turned into a kind of off the cuff philosophical something, um...

edit II: Slight better musings on the idea of Cas needing 'fixing' and how Naomi's attempt to do so parallels with Dean/Cas in S06.

Soooo, another tangent there.

As Cas struggles with Naomi's influence we get another great moment of Dean putting his hand on Cas' shoulder, like in A Little Slice of Kevin :) These are the things that make me happy. Cas' fucking FACE though, that is the freaking epitome of anguish.

After being flung into the wall Dean scrambles up and for the first time actually tries to get the hell out of dodge. Cas stops him of course and Dean goes a bit nuts because he actually tries to punch Cas or something (like that ever works). But I guess desperate times.

CLIMAX

Then we get a nice call back to how Cas killed the fake Dean at the start in the way he twists and breaks Dean's arm here in the same way he did to the fake Dean, obviously on the verge of carrying out the same killing manoeuvre we saw him use before. Because that move was eventually, over thousands of Deans, established as the most efficient Dean killing move, perhaps. In any case, it causes Dean to drop the tablet which smashes on the ground, freed of its casing (which will be important later).

But instead of efficiently dispatching Dean with a stab to the chest like at the beginning of the episode, Cas beats on him instead. Viciously, it's true, but I can't help but think this is Cas playing for time the only way he can.

During this, Dean moves on to goading, shouting at Cas to kill him because it's the only way he'll get the tablet, trying to see if that will make him snap out of the control no doubt, make the Cas realise what he's actually doing.

Only Cas knows exactly what he's doing, he just can't stop.

I think the intercuts to Naomi's white room where Cas is mimicking the punches he is inflicting on Dean are just awesome. I'm not knowledgeable on video or editing or anything, so perhaps me saying the editing was really cool doesn't mean much, but I thought it was really cool!

The way Cas BEGS Naomi as well-'please' Oh god oh god.

And that's a reversal of the training at the beginning. Back then the fake Dean was the one begging, but this time, for the real thing, it's CAS who's begging.

And the real Dean says something quite different to his counterpart (and if you're skimming and haven't read much of anything else, and I wouldn't blame you because fuck me I'm word vomiting over this one, I'd urge you to pay attention at least to this because it's REALLY fucking important)-

*** Dean: Cas, this isn't you. This isn't you. Cas. Cas. I know you're in there. I know you can hear me. Cas, it's me. We're family. We need you. I need you. ***

All spoken with Dean kneeling on the ground, reaching up imploringly with his unbroken hand, face bloody, one eye almost swollen up from Cas' beating, but his gaze focused on Cas' face nonetheless. Here:





Guys GUYS! I MEAN REALLY ARE YOU SEEING THIS DID YOU SEE THIS SCENE?! I cannot believe we got this scene. My heart's beating faster as I watch it and this is my third time watching it just... wow.

So, firstly, there was an 'I love you' cut from this moment so we're told. Misha spilled that Dean was scripted to say 'I love you' in a future episode at ECCC a while back, and apparently he later confirmed in private that it was this episode and reassured the person in question he was absolutely serious. Having watched the video where Misha talks about the cut 'I love you' I do actually believe him. I don't have evidence for the confirmation it was this episode though. It seems likely that if there was such a line cut it would be this episode and this moment however. I actually feel pretty confident in taking it as fact myself. General consensus is that 'I love you' was replaced by Dean's final 'I need you.'

Reactions range from being extremely happy to being extremely pissed about this fact. People who are pissed are calling the fact that it was cut another example of a 'no homo' choice (like, and as I said before sometimes considered in combination with, the porn) and that the above dialogue reinforces platonic family emotions from Dean to Cas.

With all due respect to everyone who holds that opinion, I think it's bollocks.

As I explained on tumblr:

Firstly, you know, your family can also mean husband/wife/lover. Ben referred to himself and his mum as Dean's 'family' for example, because Lisa was family to Dean, as well as a woman Dean loved romantically. In fact, I think it's telling that Dean has shifted from calling Cas 'brother,' which has extremely PLATONIC connotations (in normal usage anyway, outside of Winchester dysfunction ;p), to the more vague term 'family.' This, to me, indicates a shift in Dean's thinking of where Cas fits, emotionally, in his life.

Secondly, I also disagree with 'you're family' being a 'no homo' because THIS IS DEAN. And what I understand of Dean tells me it is just NOT IC for him to come out and say 'I love you, in the romantic sense' to a guy. He can barely say 'I love you' in the platonic sense to SAM. So no way, he is too repressed to up and say 'Cas, I love you'. It makes FAR MORE SENSE Dean would hide his love behind the term 'family' and 'need.'

I imagine his internal monologue to be a constant - 'Cas matters so much to me, it hurts when he's not around, what does that mean? it's like I... love... him... but, no, nonono, I'm not gay... the only other people I've felt close to in a way that feels like this are Sammy and Bobby and Dad, so... family, that's it, Cas is family, that's all, that's what this feeling is, yup, must be... except, sometimes I feel for him kinda like I felt about Lisa, and Cassie, but... nah, he's just family, must be!' ;)

Find some other lovely analysis of why 'I need you' holds so much weight (potentially even more than 'I love you') for Dean here and here :D

Another absolutely wonderful thing to note about what Dean says:

Fake!Dean says 'please don't do this!' His words mean 'you mustn't kill me, it's wrong because it will destroy me and I matter!'

But, oh, the real Dean says 'this isn't you, you're family, we need you, I need you.' His words mean 'you mustn't kill me, it's wrong because it will destroy you and you matter!'

Fake!Dean protests because his life matters to him.

Dean protests because Cas' life matters to him.

Fake!Dean is all about Dean. But the real Dean is all about Cas.

Guys guys OMG!

Faced with this emotional plea, Naomi does something I think rather strange personally and seems to offer up some semblance of free will to Castiel by telling him-'You have to choose, Castiel. Us. Or them.'

I wonder. Was it just that she believed so strongly, arrogantly, that Cas would choose Heaven? Or is this further implication, like their back and forth before over killing Meg, that Naomi has never been as interested in controlling Cas as all that?

Perhaps, in the end, she needed Cas to make his own decision. Because if the only reason Cas killed Dean was because he was doing it under duress, hating every second, despite all Naomi's training, then perhaps Naomi thought there was no point in it.

Cas had to make a free choice to kill Dean, or not do it at all. To truly 'fix' Cas, he had to be allowed to make that final step of his own accord. This was the moment of truth, the fucking CLIMAX OF THE WHOLE EPISODE (I mean, do you get that, do you understand? This was the central focus which everything else in the episode was building up to and pivoting around!) when Castiel proved whether he was truly 'fixed' or not.

So Naomi gambled. And she lost.

Because Cas DOESN'T inflict that final blow. He stands there over Dean in that moment, and Dean says one word, just one, and it's not 'please' or 'no' or 'don't,' it's Cas' name. Dean must get that these could be his last few seconds alive, and the uses them to utter the name of this angel, this friend, not even saying it like a plea, just saying it, because in those last few seconds he wants Cas there with him (reminding me of how Balthazar's last words were 'Cas,' uttered in a similar way).

And god I love love love the way Cas drops his sword with the rest of him still emotionless and blank. Because what that means is that, actually, he's still connected to Naomi in that moment, he's still under her control (that won't break until the next bit happens), but the emotion Dean inspired broke through and stopped him dealing that killing blow. Naomi is in control of Cas in all things, she can twist his mind and even his emotions to an extent. EXCEPT when it comes to loving Dean Winchester.

Ugh.

...and that is the story of how I died.

Because I'm really not sure you're getting it yet. The climax of the episode, the pivotal moment of the episode's whole storyline, is Cas' LOVE for Dean and Dean's LOVE for Cas (the two way street of it, because Cas' love alone wouldn't have been enough, that's why he was able to kill all those fakes, because they didn't love him back).

The climax of this episode was Dean/Cas being canon, thank you and goodbye.

(okay okay, not explicitly romantically canon-but this is the heaviest the subtext of romantic love between them has ever been! and subtextual canon is STILL CANON as I understand it!)

Aftermath

Now, for those who were confused, it's the next bit that breaks Cas' connection to Naomi, NOT Cas' love overpowering the order to kill Dean. That simply overpowered the order to kill Dean, it didn't break the connection. No, it's when Cas reaches down to pick up the angel tablet, because he's following the rest of Naomi's instructions which were to get the tablet and bring it to Heaven, that the connection to Naomi is severed in a bright flash of light.

How or why? We don't know yet. Just like we don't know exactly what happened to Cas when he touched the tablet. Most people theorise that knowledge or awareness of some kind passed into Cas from the tablet, and I find that likely. Although it's possible Cas exchanged one controller for another and he is being somehow controlled/manipulated/influenced by the tablet now. I think it's too early to call it. My preference would be that some knowledge passed to Cas through the tablet-of what it can do perhaps, and/or the whereabouts of Metatron-and Cas subsequently made his own decision about what to do based on that knowledge and on his own. I don't like the idea that Cas is still under the influence of someone or something...

But that's for later. In the meantime let's talk about how Cas, now freed from Naomi, looks up from the tablet and sees Dean bloody and broken, and the change in his expression is subtle, but I think you can tell he's seeing Dean with full awareness now and he's pained by what he sees, there's something in the way his lips part slightly in subtle shock.



Or I'm reading too much into it. Whatever :p

I think Dean sees something in Cas' expression though, because the way he gasps 'Cas' in response sounds hopeful to me, almost with a '?' on the end, like he's asking 'Cas? Is that really you? Because it looks like you this time'

Only then Cas reaches forward, palm moving towards Dean's face, and Dean's knows that's how Cas smites people (how many times must he have watched Cas press his palm to a creature in Purgatory and burn the life out of it?), so I'm SURE that's what Dean is assuming Cas is about to do to him now (because why else would Cas try and touch him like that, right? he's never touched Dean like that before). So when Dean says 'no' here, voice breaking with the word, I don't think he's begging, he's not saying 'no, don't,' he's expressing sorrow and loss because he thinks this isn't Cas. He's answering his own question-'Cas?'-'no,' no this isn't Cas, he thought for a brief second he'd got his angel back, but no, no, no. And all he can do after that is call for Cas again. Not once, not even now, does he say 'don't' or 'please,' it's just 'Cas, Cas!' And I want to cry over it. He's about to die, and he's saying 'Cas, Cas come back to me!'

And please oh please let's talk FOREVER about the way Dean's fingers grip tight around Cas' sleeve. For all he knows in that moment Cas is KILLING HIM, and instead of trying to push Cas away Dean HOLDS ON TO HIM. GUYS I CAN'T EVEN-



But Cas doesn't kill him, he heals him.

Heals him by fucking cupping Dean's face in his hand guys, I mean, come on.



My shipper heart was a little sad Cas' fingers didn't linger and trail down Dean's jaw, gotta say :p But then again, considering how Cas apologises after, heartfelt and no doubt hating himself for what he just put Dean though, for how worse it could have been, I expect he doesn't feel like he deserves to let his touch on Dean linger, doesn't want to distress Dean by holding the hand that was just so recently causing Dean so much pain too close to Dean for too long.

Oh, and this parallels beautifully with all the other times Dean has got through to the people he loves while they were possessed, of course. Because Dean is the HEART of the team, perhaps even the heart of the show (though I know Sam!girls will argue otherwise and I'm not sure I entirely agree with the simplicity of that anyway, I'm just getting sappy here). It also stands in contrast to the last time Dean tried to get through to a Cas who wasn't quite Cas and failed, back when Cas was high on Purgatory souls. Oh my boys, how far you've come! ♥

Morality Unicorn

Meanwhile, upstairs (had you forgotten shit was happening upstairs? because I'm telling you I fucking did), Sam and Meg have dealt with stunt demons one and two but are left facing the leader of the pack. Crowley himself.

Crowley: I've got a bone to pick with you moose, after what you did to my poor dog.

Moment of silence for what, it turns out, was indeed Growley that Sam killed for the first Trial. RIP Growley.

Crowley draws his angel blade (and the fact he has one, which was insignificant to me before, has now before of more interest due to a conversation that will happen later...) and Meg, in a genuine show of selflessness that completes my surprise about her character, tells Sam to run inside while she takes Crowley on.

Meg: Go. Save your brother. And my unicorn.

Wow, right? This is the second (and final) moment where I had serious OOC issues.

Because explicitly comparing Sam's feelings for Amelia to her feelings for Cas? This makes Meg's feelings for Cas pretty much explicitly romantic now. Which officially makes megstiel a romantic as well as a sexual pairing, ON MEG'S SIDE ANYWAY.

Well, sort of. I will argue that Meg is not properly claiming to have romantic feelings for Cas, just that she has complicated feelings of fondness for him and in her understanding it seems similar to however Sam described his relationship with Amelia. The crux of the comparison is that Meg considers Cas someone who came into her life and made her think and feel differently, made it possible for her to be a different kind of person, like Amelia made it possible for Sam to live a non-hunting life. But the upshot is that, in Meg's understanding at least, both Amelia and Cas are 'unicorns' (rare, supposedly mythical creatures that are out of reach of mortal beings) because they are both people she and Sam know are ultimately unobtainable, who they have no possibility of a future with (perhaps because, in both cases, the 'unicorn' belonged to and/or loved another??).

I don't consider this parallel a perfect fit, because it you've read any of my other reviews you'll know I ship Sam/Amelia a fair bit, so I want to believe they COULD have had a future together (and Amelia was prepared to leave Don for Sam, implying she didn't really love Don all that deeply). Whereas, obviously, I don't believe the same of Meg, Cas and Dean, because I believe Cas' bond with Dean far outweighs any fondness he holds for Meg. But, parallels aren't meant to be exact anyway, so :p

My conclusion-megstiel is a complicated mostly one-sided romance, that might not be a real romance on either side anyway and certainly isn't lasting.

BUT. In any case this was UNEXPECTED.

If I were to call anything about megstiel OOC it would be this expression (or affirmation?) of MEG'S feelings. I know a lot of Meg fans are unhappy because this arguably makes her too 'soft' and I can see that. One of the central aspects of Meg's character was that she was wholly self-serving, caring for no one but herself (and Lucifer).

...but eh. Whatever. I'm no so invested in Meg's character to cry foul. I can see how it might be considered OOC. But I've decided I'm happy to buy it :)

There's a TV trope for just this kind of story actually. It's called the Morality Pet, whereby a villain comes to care for one specific character and because of their fondness for said character starts helping the character's friends, who are usually the heroes of the story. Through doing this the villain becomes a little bit of a better person (sometimes completely redeeming themselves (eg. Spike in Buffy) and sometimes not. So I would say Cas is for sure Meg's Morality Unicorn. I've always quite liked that plot so... *shrug* Okay.

Before the episode aired and tumblr was ablaze with spoilers about a megstiel plot within the episode, I theorised that it would play out that Cas would be Meg's Morality Chain, which differs in the sense that the villain only cares about the character who is acting as this chain and nothing and no one else, not becoming a better person through they fondness of said character at all but being more than willing to commit villainous self-serving acts when the Chain's back is turned and will revert straight back to their evil, selfish self if the Chain dies. I felt that plot would leave Meg suitably badass evil, but allowed for a kind of messed up fondness between her and Cas... and, idk, maybe that WAS the megstiel plot, but... Meg talking so fondly of Cas as her 'unicorn' makes me think the plot turned too sweet for it and Cas was more of a Pet than a Chain.

I guess you can argue either way. Either way, I quite like that plot, so I'm good with the megstiel plot.

There are two issues with it, beyond OOCness, that I DO agree with however. But they are the kind of issues I'd call 'meta' issues, so I'll get to them in a moment.

Deconstructing Binary Opposition-or let's pick door #3

Back in the crypt, a breathless Dean is back on his feet grappling with the newfound understanding that Naomi has been controlling Cas since he got out of Purgatory (which has got to be a real mindfuck for Dean, actually, because he's got to be wondering now just exactly when Cas was being Cas and when he was Naomi's puppet-was wanting to be a hunter all Cas, he might wonder? what about the times they were alone together and just being friendly? what about when Cas wanted to watch over him as he slept and thought John's handwriting was beautiful? was any of their bonding since Purgatory real bonding?).

And then we have this-

Cas: I just know that I have to protect this tablet now.
Dean: From Naomi?
Cas: Yes [Dean lets out a sigh of relief-Cas really IS free of Naomi if he's planning to stand in opposition to her, thank god, they can finally get out of here and be together and -] ...and from you.
Dean: [expression tenses] From me, what are you talking about?

And that's it, Cas is gone. Dean barely gets to BREATHE in relief and he's lost Cas AGAIN. Throughout that whole confrontation, since Cas showed up and saved Sam, hell maybe even since Cas got out of Purgatory, ever since he and Cas found themselves IN Purgatory, all Dean has wanted from Cas is to have Cas back and have Cas be with him.

And all Cas keeps doing is flying away :(

Dean has JUST got Cas back, only to lose him again so many freaking times. No wonder his emotions when it comes to Cas are getting increasingly raw.

I was kind of gutted by Cas leaving the first time... and I'm STILL gutted, but now I've thought about it I understand more.

See, I wanted Cas to be all super romantic and give Dean the tablet because he believes it belongs with humanity more than Heaven and he trusts Dean with it above all others.

But you know what? It's kind of black and white simply picking humanity over Heaven. And if anyone's read my babble about chess through this season, you'll know I'm very behind breaking down binaries and muddying the waters :p

So you know what happened here? Cas had a black and white opinion-a choice between 'us and them.' And he chose, as someone on tumblr so nicely put it-neither or both. He chose the third option. He chose to leave the board. Because Heaven and Dean (and Sam) are BOTH Cas' family. He wants to help both and doesn't want to fight either. He can't trust the tablet with Naomi, her manipulation of him proves that, she would probably try and use it for destruction. But you know what? He can't trust Dean with it either. No, he can't. Dean is a good man and Cas loves him, but he's also in the middle of a quest to close off Hell, thinking nothing of using the demon tablet any which way he can, he's the man who slaughtered and tortured monsters in Purgatory without a thought and was willing to kill Kevin's innocent mum in order to kill Crowley. Cas knows that if Dean believes his cause is just, Dean will do whatever it takes to see that cause through. Just like Naomi will. And if Naomi and Dean's respective causes end up being the destruction of each other, which is a very real possibility (Naomi already attempted such after all), then Cas will be caught in-between them unable to happily give his support to either side, because he doesn't want to favour either side over the other.

So of course Cas took the tablet out of both their hands and I think he was right to do so.

But, oh, I wish he'd spent more time with Dean before running off.

Goodbye Stranger

Anyway, Sam finds Dean and they rush off, dodging past Crowley who Meg is still valiantly distracting. Meg smiles to see Cas is absent, realising he must have made off with the tablet and screwing over Crowley's plan is assured. With her last strength she stabs Crowley in the shoulder, and in retaliation he swings round and stabs her in the heart. We watch through Sam and Dean's POV through the back window of the Impala (awesome shot btw) as she crumples to the ground dead.

The boys scarper, because, you know, in this instance there is a genuine threat of Crowley KILLING THEM here, and we get an overview of a pissed off Crowley above Meg's fallen host.

I've seen a few people complaining Meg didn't get a good enough send off, but personally I think she got more than enough of one considering she has always been a minor antagonist on the show. She got her death focused on, Sam even winced in sympathy, and she got an aerial shot. I thought it was perfect.

The bigger question for me is-was her death supposed to be redemptive? And I'd say no, not really. She did something good in her last moments, but it doesn't absolve her of past crimes. It's very similar to Gabriel's death actually-he too was a minor antagonist who ended up risking his life and making the ultimate sacrifice because of the feelings he had for another supernatural being who by all rights should have been his enemy. And his death wasn't treated as redemptive either, imo, it just so happened he got a prettier overhead shot by virtue of being an angel and thus having wings (although, thinking about it, fandom would say otherwise and I wonder if there's a bit of a double standard there, because I'm sure there won't be anywhere near as much romanticising of Meg's death as their was of Gabriel's, and yet, by god, their stories are very VERY similar aren't they?).

Overall then, I thoroughly enjoyed Meg's story in this episode and I think it fits just fine with her character as a whole. It surprised me, and I understand it people don't like it because it made Meg 'soft,' but I'm not calling it OOC.

'Meta Problems'-two criticisms I agree with

There IS, however, a 'meta problem' with Meg's story that I can't help agreeing and sympathising with. And that's that, oh dear SPN, this is YET ANOTHER female character you have killed off and, potentially even worse, she died sacrificing herself for the boys, or at the very least for a predominantly MALE Castiel, which thus arguably reduces her character and her story to one that exists to further the story of the men in the show, as opposed to being about her in her own right. Oy. I can't be bothered to be mad at it, because, like I say, I enjoyed the story. But I've said this so many times over the course of this show. The fact I like the stories, and eventual deaths, of every female character doesn't change the fact that it's kinda problematic that the show keeps writing these stories in such a way that the women keep dying. So yup, this is one of the two prevailing criticisms going round that I do agree with.

The second 'meta' criticism that I don't disagree with, the one do to with queer representation I was talking about at the start, is the fact that megstiel, a pairing with, what, 5 or so episodes to its name (?) gets presented as an EXPLICITLY ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP. While Dean/Cas, which has a foundation of 4 ½ YEARS remains a romantic relationship IN SUBTEXT ONLY (oh the subtext this episode is the closest to text it's ever been, and I for one absolutely love the subtextual story and consider it valid and well written, but it's still 'just' subtext). I can't deny that's pretty unfair.

Of course, megstiel was explicitly canon BEFORE this episode, so I wondered at first why so many people were angry after this episode specifically. Nothing has actually changed. What I've concluded is that people are mad about the ROMANTIC element in particular. Before now megstiel was canonically sexual with both of them being extremely ambiguous in their fondness. This episode clarified the fondness on both sides and made Meg's explicitly (albeit still complicated) romantic.

With just a couple of lines an f/m relationship was given undeniable validation, while an m/m ship with much stronger foundation for romance remains just shy of that element of validation that will make it undeniable. The word for this, I believe, is heteronormative. It's a general TV/media issue, where f/m relationships are always a hop, skip and jump away from being presented and accepted as romantically canon by virtue of both parties being opposite genders (Sam/Amelia, much as I like it, is an example of this, because it's not like we get much insight into the development of that relationship is there? But because they are f/m the idea is that we should buy/accept they relationship as a love story). Whereas m/m relationships might run for years, both parties getting progressively closer and treating each other as much more than friends, but pretty much by virtue of them being the same gender the idea of considering them romantic will not occur to the general population and usually be scoffed at if it's suggested (I don't know if f/f relationships suffer a similar prejudice?).

So yeah, that sucks, I understand people who are mad that this episode is another example of that.

What I don't feel about it, however, is betrayed, like some are expressing. Because this is not NEW. This is how Dean/Cas and Dean/other or Cas/other has always been. Dean/Cas has ALWAYS been a subtextual relationship, while the f/m relationships in the show are text. To be even more specific, Dean/Cas has always been subtextual and megstiel has always been text. This episode was never cited as the episode that was going to bring Dean/Cas into the text.

What I see from all of this is that this episode concluded the explicitly canonical megstiel relationship. And it also seriously expanded upon the subtextual Dean/Cas relationship. Megstiel is now OVER. The romantic elements of Dean and Cas' relationship are still very much a significant part of the show. I'm not confident myself the show will EVER take Dean/Cas beyond subtext, I've never expected that, but IF it's going to happen there is still time for it to happen. And, as many others have pointed out as well, this episode, this moment in Dean and Cas' story, was not really the right time to make Dean/Cas explicitly romantically canon anyway. IMO, if it's going to happen, it should happen next season (I would expand on reasons but by god this is enough of a monster already-there's plenty of meta out there already discussing when would be the best time to take Dean/Cas into the text, have a look around if you're interested x).

So to conclude this-allowing f/m relationships into the explicit canon while m/m ones remain only in the subtext is unfair, I completely agree with that. This episode was another example of that happening, so fair enough if you're upset.

Who the fuck are you Crowley??

Next up we have, what?? Crowley and Naomi?? The plot thickens.

Crowley addresses Naomi as an old friend (or an old enemy). Talks about time in Mesopotamia together (where he was a lover not a fighter-possibly with her!). Naomi calls him a cockroach and bails on him in the middle of a sale pitch.

FASCINATING.

No less because Mesopotamia and 17th Century Scotland (which S06 tells us is the time human Crowley made his demon deal) are not exactly compatible time periods. How could Crowley have been pals with Naomi in Mesopotamia if he didn't even exist until the 17th Century? If this is a simple continuity error, it's pretty GLARING. Although it is certainly a possibility. Me, however... I'm thinking it might be deliberate, I'm thinking it's bringing the 'Crowley is more than just a demon' theory that I discarded when we saw his red eyes in What's Up Tiger Mommy? back on the table. Hence why the fact he has what is potentially his own angel blade has become of interest to me... *curious Holly is curious*

Character Development

Inside the Impala Dean and Sam don't waste time lamenting the loss of Meg, and frankly why would they? Sam does express concern over Cas. It's not clear how much Dean told Sam, but I'm willing to bet it was nowhere near the full story. Sam does know that Cas touched the tablet and ran off with it and theorises the tablet might have 'reset him to his factory settings,' linking back, of course, to how Crowley tapped into Samandriel's 'factory settings.' Making it a very real possibility this is what's happened and Cas is being compelled by the tablet somehow. As I said, I'm gonna hope this isn't what's happening. But I could work with it if it was.

Dean: I don't know and I don't care.

Liar. You care too much and that's the problem.

Then finally the heart-to-heart between the boys about how Sam's been hiding the effects of the trials. Dean 'can't take anymore lies,' and yet his says this not with blame but as simple fact. He's not mad at Sam, in fact when Sam explains a bit about why he was lying and apologises for doing so Dean nods like he understands and accepts not just the apology but Sam's reasoning. And in return Sam promises to be honest from here on out. Aaaand, done. Easy.

Idk, I thought that was pretty awesome. No fireworks, no hysterics, just open communication. Way to go boys ♥

Dean: You know, I may not be able to carry the burden that comes along with these trials. But I can carry you.
Sam: [touched... then thoughtful] You realise you just kinda quoted Lord of the Rings, right?

Now, I was a little annoyed at this exchange at first because it seemed to imply Dean's life/existence/character was all about Sam and carrying Sam and caring for Sam again. Which is oh man the opposite of what I want.

But I went for a walk and got to thinking about Lord of the Rings and Samwise... and Samwise's character isn't like that, is he? He has a pretty distinctive character of his own and the whole point of the ending of the story is that Samwise, through his adventures with Frodo, has come into his own as a person and finds the strength to live his own life and be his own person, as shown (at least in the film) by the way he starts to woo Rosie and eventually marries her. In fact, the point is that, unlike Frodo, Samwise is able to go on and live his life, while Frodo finds he can no longer integrate into normal society and has to leave with the elves. Samwise, unlike Frodo, is the one who is able to go on to live a fulfilling, INDEPENDENT life.

At the heart of this, I think, is that there is a difference between being a CARETAKER and being a SUPPORTING CHARACTER (or sidekick if you like).
A caretaker's character is, or risks becoming, defined by the one they care for. A supporting character HELPS or, you might say, SUPPORTS (:p) other characters in specific times of need (Samwise, for example, didn't actually carry Frodo until they reached Mount Doom), while simultaneously maintaining their own character and even developing their own personal sense of self through their aid of others to the point where they are ultimately able to strike out on their own (eg. Robin supported Batman for years, learnt from the experience, and as a consequence was able to become his own, independent superhero Nightwing - who was Batman for a little while too, which makes Dean Batman indirectly, right? ;p).

Conclusion? What I DON'T want is for Dean to be a CARETAKER anymore, because he needs to know he doesn't have to be DEFINED by his worth to other people, he has his OWN worth. What I am, however, FINE with is Dean rocking the SUPPORTING CHARACTER (or even sidekick) role. Because I think that role allows him real potential for growth, probably more than a mytharc role would allow.
No one thinks Han Solo is less of a character/person because he supports Luke, right? In fact, in my experience he's usually given as everyone's favourite character from Star Wars :p Well, Dean is Han Solo :) (I've always preferred the sidekicks myself anyway tbh)

The End

And to end, a montage, fittingly to Supertramp's 'Goodbye Stranger.' Naomi is visited by a smartly dressed angel who sadly shakes her head-Castiel has not be found. Meanwhile Cas himself is seen on a bus heading out into the mountains, zipping the angel tablet carefully into a dufflebag. Oh my bb, be careful and come back soon!

'Goodbye Stranger'-really nice title. We said 'goodbye' to mind!controlled!Cas who was a stranger to Dean. Cas said goodbye to Naomi, who was a stranger to him. We all said goodbye to Meg, who remains the biggest stranger of all considering we never even knew her real name. A nice fit, I like :)

Verdict? OMG I'M EXHAUSTED. I don't even know how to sum up there's too much. This is everything I ever wanted. Plus a few things I wasn't expecting, but am actually perfectly okay with now and know I'm going to grow to like more and more as time goes on. I'd say more but I have to go and collapse now bye -