SPN 9x1
Sam’s dreamscape
We rarely seen Dean from Sam’s POV - the only time I can think of is the hallucination in Levee, where head!Dean was basically saying what actual Dean was saying. Sam thinks of Dean as his survival instinct, yes, but also, Sam’s subconscious pictures Dean whaling on him. (Sam also doesn’t see himself as being in control of his life - his head!Dean is the one driving.) Life is preferable, and it’s slippery and tenacious and deceptive and it beats the shit out of you. I do think people are overstating the case somewhat about Sam wanting to die. If he’d wanted to die all he had to do was finish the trials, or if not that, then he didn’t have to stall for almost a whole day. Whether or not he would be okay with survival at this cost, on these terms…well, that’s up in the air.
Sam hallucinating Bobby instead of his dad got to me for some reason. I mean, I’m sure it was actor availability. Sam’s hallucination Bobby, at least, gives Sam credit for the rescue. Sam still feels that he needs to justify his own existence - his hallucinatory Bobby soothes him with talk of what he’s done for the world, not of finding peace; when he wakes up, he latches on having work to do, rather than being pleased at his survival.
Massive internal burns, brain damage. I’m wondering retroactively if the demon blood wasn’t “purged” after all, if there was that much internal damage. I really hope not, but regardless, I think the episode really emphasizes that Sam trying to purge himself of himself was horribly destructive, and I am really pleased that the episode set us up to take a closer look at that.
The angels
I am very excited about the angels, because they are always my faves, and expanding that aspect of the ‘verse was a fantastic part of S8 for me. I do worry about Cas, not so much in terms of physical pain or need, but that I think he’s going to absorb the angels’ victim-blaming of him for his being exploited and implicated in the Fall.
THE THING
Ezekiel is no naïf. He adapted to being on his own with impressive speed. He knows exactly how to work Dean. Even more astonishingly, he’s able to successfully impersonate Dean, to Sam, while dropping not one but two references to possession - “you’ve gotta let me in”; “you can’t shut me out” - without tipping his hand. It doesn’t hurt that everything else he’s saying is exactly what Sam wants to hear, but still. His first proposal is to wipe Sam’s memory and he shows no concern or compunction about doing so. Whether or not he’s been forthcoming about his motivations, this is a player. (Also, I generally feel supremely unqualified to comment on the more technical aspects of acting, but given Padalecki’s demonstrated ability to switch characters practically mid-sentence…even I can tell THIS IS GOING TO BE COOL. And lol, it looks like casting Paul Ballard as the first Ezekiel was a special casting gag JUST FOR MEEEEE.)
Ezekiel using Dean’s form to talk Sam into saying yes was creepy as fuck but….I’m actually less bothered by the initial possession than I have been by a lot of other stuff? If you can preserve a life, you do, especially since Sam clearly wanted to live, all other things being equal. Continuing to keep the secret is a whole other can of snakes. Which, yes, it is still really bad, but because things have been SO bad all this time, IMO this is a big step in the right direction for Dean wrt Sam’s autonomy. He’s acknowledging his own responsibility for it, not making excuses as he did in 6x11 or patting himself on the back for it as in 4x21. He doesn’t dehumanize or objectify Sam in order to try to seize the right to do this; he doesn’t lie to himself and pretend that if Sam really knew what was good for him this is what he’d want. Other characters pound out Sam’s right to choose to go with Death or evict Ezekiel, for Dean and for the audience.*
What is so horrifying and so interesting is that Dean is not in charge here. He made a choice for Sam and ethically, it’s incredibly hinky, and due to his long and storied history of shitting all over Sam’s autonomy Dean has even less moral credibility than anyone making that decision for someone else generally would. Whatever, Dean’s a dick, this just in. We have plenty of reason to hate him forever if we want and I am sure he will do something unquestionably indefensible any day now. I want to push all that to the side as much as possible and look as dispassionately as possible at the psychological power dynamics here.
Ezekiel is holding all of the cards. (As a couple of people on Tumblr have pointed out, he may be some other entity calling himself Ezekiel, which would give that party even more power, but we’ll take him at his word for now.) If Ezekiel bails right now, he’ll be inconvenienced but probably survive, whereas Sam will (again, assuming Ezekiel is on the level) die. If Ezekiel decides to spill the beans, Sam gets royally pissed and then, probably, evicts Ezekiel and dies.** If Ezekiel wants, he can do all kinds of physical damage to Sam - he won’t lose his grace if Sam loses a pinkie, or a leg. And at the moment Dean doesn’t have any leverage to make Ezekiel stay when Ezekiel decides he’s healed, even if Sam’s still up shit creek.
And oh, that’s just Sam, Ezekiel is perfectly free to get smitey with it, and by “it” I mean “anyone, anytime, for any deranged angel reason he takes into his head.” There’s nothing stopping him from killing Dean and making off with Sam permanently. And THAT is what I think is going to be really interesting about Deanie Baby’s ~precious feelings over the next couple of episodes. Guilt is only one type of regret. Every moment Dean holds out on Sam, as much as he usually gets off on it, he’s putting himself at risk. So is he really going to be feeling pangs of conscience, some spiritual conviction that he’s in a deep moral morass and has been for a very long time? Or is he just going to be scared shitless, for Sam and for his own hide, and unhappy about it?
For a long time Dean has done a lot of griping about not knowing if Sam is Sam, regardless of how clearly Sam tells Dean that Sam is Sam. And now that’s all going to get called into question too. Ezekiel blows at impersonating Sam now, it’s true. But given a couple of weeks and a few solid distractions - Dean’s really not going to know if the Sam he’s bonding with is Sam. And if he ever asks any questions, either he’ll tip his hand to Sam and Sam might well evict Ezekiel, or Ezekiel can just flounce if Dean gets mouthy.
Is Sam even Sam anymore? Can you be truly separated from your angel? What if Hallucifer really was, a little bit, Lucifer? Has Sam just been YED’d by Dean? Or - “you won’t age. You won’t die” (4x20) - was Sam’s choice to stay and fight as final as the deal he tried to make with Death? What if Ezekiel decides to hold onto him forever, or even inadvertently over-fortifies Sam physically and makes him immortal?
IDK JUST GO GET SOME HYBRID BLOOD ALREADY, DUMMIES.
*IN WHICH I AM A BITCH ABOUT FANDOM ALREADY: I feel like I’m seeing a lot more anger at Dean for his disrespect of Sam’s autonomy than I was expecting…and somehow not finding it as encouraging as I’d have expected? As much as I’d like to think that all of fandom has absorbed my ~gleaming pearls of wisdom, I’m worried about two distinctions: (1) that fandom seems to have had a much easier time forgiving Dean for his much more cut-and-dried violation of Sam when Sam was soulless - ie, that Bad Sam didn’t deserve to make choices for himself, implying that personal agency is a privilege and not a right and (2) that the choice to survive by any means, as Sam tried to make in 4x21 and then 6x10, is demonized and Dean is allowed to override it, but the ~beautiful choice to die is sacrosanct. NOPE.
**Before all the stupid ZOMG F THE RITURRRZZZZ, no, it’s not necessarily a retcon to S4/5 that Ezekiel thinks Sam will eject him. Ezekiel is seriously wounded, Sam isn’t tailor-made for Ezekiel in the way Jimmy was for Cas or Dean and John were for Michael, and if Sam could take back control from Lucifer he could surely do so from some grunt who may be totally new to this whole vesselage thing. Or maybe he's just a different species of angel. Or, or, or. Competitive nitpicking is not half so cute as people seem to think, aite.
ON SECOND THOUGHT (rewatching now):
- None of the figures in Sam's dreamscape ask him what he wants. He tells his dream-Dean that he wants to hang it up, but then he stalls some more and gets cranky with, well, Death, asking for an impossible guarantee (as if nobody else can get hurt in the memory of our dead).
- also, cool choreography in the forest? Sam's imaginary Dean hits him for accepting death, yes, but he also spars Sam toward the cabin.
- Hael refers to Cas as "your vessel." And I think largely that was there in order to set up the eventual possession at the end of the episode, but also to remind us that we don't even know who's rattling around in that body. A wonderful little metaphor for the identity crisis most of the angels are having, but it also looks like the "what about Jimmy?" question is going to be resolved, which I like. (I'm okay with my theory, that Jimmy and Cas both died back in Swan Song but only Cas was brought back, but it is just a theory, based solely on "it is convenient for me and there's nothing contradicting it.")
- Ezekiel's initial vessel "has no idea" to two questions: "Who are you? What the hell is going on?" Ezekiel is capable of erasing memories with laser precision, as we find out when Sam wakes up, but he decided to really mess with that first guy. That doesn't necessarily mean he's bad, but it's sure not a good sign.
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