some more supernatural, day 1(b)
continued from yesterday because I am yappy.
After his attempt to destroy his own inner evil by murdering Jake, Sam sets out to distance himself from and destroy every evil that might possibly be a threat to him. Bedtime Stories, Fresh Blood, and Malleus Maleficarum hammer home his deliberately aggressive attitude. As Sam desends into darkness, his intended victims become more and more human. He's aware in a distant way that crossroads demons were human once, but they've clearly left it far behind. He's known vamped-out Gordon as a human, and then of course witches are still human, even if they're consorting with demonic powers.
In each of those episodes, Dean serves as the audience surrogate and pulls an explanation out of Sam for his seeming change of heart. And each time, Sam makes it clear that he knows what he is doing, and that he’s doing it on purpose.
DEAN: I'm worried because you're not acting like yourself.
SAM: Yeah, you're right, I'm not. I don't have a choice.
DEAN: What is that supposed to mean?
SAM: Look, Dean, you're leaving right? And I gotta stay here in this craphole of a world, alone. So the way I see it, if I'm gonna make it, if I'm gonna fight this war after you're gone, then I gotta change.*
This is conscious, in-text identity formation, only it's built on sand. He defines this new person as Not Sam - as "like Dean," even though seeking out fights really isn't Dean's style. Sam has Dean built up as this tough guy ideal of strength which he's failing to live up to, rather than a distinct personality with different internal logic. Throughout S4, he'll see himself as having pulled ahead on this curve, justifying any distinctions between himself and Dean as being Dean's hell-handicap rather than possibly-valid differences of opinion.
As harsh as Sam’s becoming a killer is, though, it’s still ultimately pretty reactive, and so doesn’t go far enough - for better and worse, Sam is deeply proactive. It’s no accident that he’s the one fighting Pride in the season premiere. I also think the LET’S GO KILL US SOME GODS plan of the Christmas episode speaks to a shift from a strategic consequence-oriented mentality to hubris, particularly given his eventual identification with Lucifer, challenger of the Lord.
A couple of episodes are good, solid MOTW foreshadowy fun. Dream a Little Dream looks like Sam is fighting the MOTW while Dean is having the emotional development with his own inner demon, and the episode is certainly powerful enough with that reading. But in retrospect - Sam is fighting the psychic weirdo; the kid rearranging the world around his own pain; the guy who’s becoming his own violent father.
Similarly, Bad Day at Black Rock, while perfect on first watch, is a hundred times better the second time around. Sam, in desperation, reaches for a weapon. It turns out to be more beneficial than he suspected, and he comes to enjoy the effects. His initial suspicions are correct, though, and it ends up turning on him in ways way beyond what he could’ve dreamed. Fortunately he learns his lesson and this never happens again.
Fresh Blood is another “killing the shadow self” episode, with perhaps the notable distinction being that we don’t have a clue just how much Gordon is like Sam.+ When we first met him, there seemed to be an assumption on all parts that he was meant to relate to and mirror Dean. But now Gordon is an absolutist. A monster who hates monsters. A guy who convinces himself he needs to kill a civilian to show his commitment to his mission, and then leans on the murder as evidence that he’s past saving, and so can jump into the dark. He convinces himself he has to go rotten and die because he wants to take his demon adversary down with him. He might die, but he’ll save the world.
The Christmas special does a lot to build up the characterization of both guys, but I think in particular it goes a long way toward explaining Sam’s willingness to look past the lies Ruby’s been feeding him all season. Sam spent those formative years knowing the dangerous truth, and having the only people in his life lie to him about it. Every day, about everything that shaped their lives. He’s heavily conditioned to ignore the cognitive dissonance his affiliation with Ruby will provoke, because it’s exactly what he went through with John and Dean. He really doesn’t know the difference between trust and enforced dependence.
Somewhere in these early episodes, Lilith first gets name-dropped not as a threat to Dean, but as an aggressor against Sam. It’s not until after the guys react to that by tacking her onto the bottom of their ever-lengthening shit list that the demons claim she’s the one with Dean’s contract. That gets Sam’s attention in a way that deflects him as far as possible from the real endgame. Lilith does everything but march up to their door and announce that she’s the Big Bad, so LOOK NO FURTHER.
Unfortunately for almost everyone involved, she gets a vital, and totally unintentional, assist from the least likely source.
*Malleus Maleficarum; transcript from SuperWiki
+I don’t want to not-acknowledge the fucked up racial politics of that, but I don’t know as I can say anything particularly useful about it, either, so. That happened, I guess?
After his attempt to destroy his own inner evil by murdering Jake, Sam sets out to distance himself from and destroy every evil that might possibly be a threat to him. Bedtime Stories, Fresh Blood, and Malleus Maleficarum hammer home his deliberately aggressive attitude. As Sam desends into darkness, his intended victims become more and more human. He's aware in a distant way that crossroads demons were human once, but they've clearly left it far behind. He's known vamped-out Gordon as a human, and then of course witches are still human, even if they're consorting with demonic powers.
In each of those episodes, Dean serves as the audience surrogate and pulls an explanation out of Sam for his seeming change of heart. And each time, Sam makes it clear that he knows what he is doing, and that he’s doing it on purpose.
DEAN: I'm worried because you're not acting like yourself.
SAM: Yeah, you're right, I'm not. I don't have a choice.
DEAN: What is that supposed to mean?
SAM: Look, Dean, you're leaving right? And I gotta stay here in this craphole of a world, alone. So the way I see it, if I'm gonna make it, if I'm gonna fight this war after you're gone, then I gotta change.*
This is conscious, in-text identity formation, only it's built on sand. He defines this new person as Not Sam - as "like Dean," even though seeking out fights really isn't Dean's style. Sam has Dean built up as this tough guy ideal of strength which he's failing to live up to, rather than a distinct personality with different internal logic. Throughout S4, he'll see himself as having pulled ahead on this curve, justifying any distinctions between himself and Dean as being Dean's hell-handicap rather than possibly-valid differences of opinion.
As harsh as Sam’s becoming a killer is, though, it’s still ultimately pretty reactive, and so doesn’t go far enough - for better and worse, Sam is deeply proactive. It’s no accident that he’s the one fighting Pride in the season premiere. I also think the LET’S GO KILL US SOME GODS plan of the Christmas episode speaks to a shift from a strategic consequence-oriented mentality to hubris, particularly given his eventual identification with Lucifer, challenger of the Lord.
A couple of episodes are good, solid MOTW foreshadowy fun. Dream a Little Dream looks like Sam is fighting the MOTW while Dean is having the emotional development with his own inner demon, and the episode is certainly powerful enough with that reading. But in retrospect - Sam is fighting the psychic weirdo; the kid rearranging the world around his own pain; the guy who’s becoming his own violent father.
Similarly, Bad Day at Black Rock, while perfect on first watch, is a hundred times better the second time around. Sam, in desperation, reaches for a weapon. It turns out to be more beneficial than he suspected, and he comes to enjoy the effects. His initial suspicions are correct, though, and it ends up turning on him in ways way beyond what he could’ve dreamed. Fortunately he learns his lesson and this never happens again.
Fresh Blood is another “killing the shadow self” episode, with perhaps the notable distinction being that we don’t have a clue just how much Gordon is like Sam.+ When we first met him, there seemed to be an assumption on all parts that he was meant to relate to and mirror Dean. But now Gordon is an absolutist. A monster who hates monsters. A guy who convinces himself he needs to kill a civilian to show his commitment to his mission, and then leans on the murder as evidence that he’s past saving, and so can jump into the dark. He convinces himself he has to go rotten and die because he wants to take his demon adversary down with him. He might die, but he’ll save the world.
The Christmas special does a lot to build up the characterization of both guys, but I think in particular it goes a long way toward explaining Sam’s willingness to look past the lies Ruby’s been feeding him all season. Sam spent those formative years knowing the dangerous truth, and having the only people in his life lie to him about it. Every day, about everything that shaped their lives. He’s heavily conditioned to ignore the cognitive dissonance his affiliation with Ruby will provoke, because it’s exactly what he went through with John and Dean. He really doesn’t know the difference between trust and enforced dependence.
Somewhere in these early episodes, Lilith first gets name-dropped not as a threat to Dean, but as an aggressor against Sam. It’s not until after the guys react to that by tacking her onto the bottom of their ever-lengthening shit list that the demons claim she’s the one with Dean’s contract. That gets Sam’s attention in a way that deflects him as far as possible from the real endgame. Lilith does everything but march up to their door and announce that she’s the Big Bad, so LOOK NO FURTHER.
Unfortunately for almost everyone involved, she gets a vital, and totally unintentional, assist from the least likely source.
*Malleus Maleficarum; transcript from SuperWiki
+I don’t want to not-acknowledge the fucked up racial politics of that, but I don’t know as I can say anything particularly useful about it, either, so. That happened, I guess?