It's only been two episodes, and really only one and what, one eighth of this Sam-and-Ezekiel business, but I ADORE WHERE SAID BUSINESS IS GOING SO MUCH. For all the reasons you've cited above. Like, I don't think Ezekiel is going to pull a Ruby on them (though I'll add that I think my reading of Ruby's deceit is much more charitable towards her than fandom's or, say, uh, Dean's), and actually have nefarious imma-play-the-long-game plans, but I think already it's obvious that even his most well-meaning and ~innocent intrusions, Dean's not really feeling the benevolence. And I'm pretty sure that even if you have three people who theoretically, nominally, all want the same thing (healing and safety for everyone!), you also have three people who gradually discover that their wants aren't actually as aligned with one another as they may have originally thought or hoped
( ... )
To add, I thought it was interesting that an angel's unexpected arrival would cause Abaddon to pack up shop so quickly. Not that it wasn't the best, most intelligent course of action--if you confront an angel, of course you want advance warning, and you want it on your own terms, Knight of Hell of no. But what exactly is her plan, with regard to making... "all of the angels, with their clipped wings" bow to me? Because her clever co-optation of all of the violence and convenience of modern warfare (Kevlar, assault rifles, and sort of really, really obliquely, chemical warfare?) against hunters is ace, but then angels.
Yeah, I am really interested to see how she gets into it with angels. I think her claim there was more about swag than anything, and also about seizing the moment, since if Hell is ever going to get its hands on angelic power, it needs to move now before they have a chance to get home or regroup on Earth. But she can't do that on the defensive.
The season is interesting in that it has a pattern of people co-opting the power from someone "above" them on the kind of cosmic scale - Hell seizes the power of human weapons; Dean uses angel power for human ends - when we've almost always seen power-seekers look downward on the cosmic chain. ie, I don't know if it was a conscious choice to have Dean reference angels as being "nukes" toward the beginning and then make the reference to Silkwood a half an hour later - ie, both Dean and Abaddon have gone nuclear.
I agree; I'm trying to think about how previous, similar references might speak to that. (The fact that they are literally shacking up in a Cold War-era bunker aside.) The Meg/Dean partnership wrt finding Emmanuel/Castiel was, in Dean's words, mutually assured destruction. Which I GUESS you could map onto Abaddon and the Winchesters probably having a mutual enemy in Heaven/Metatron, as well as mutual desire to kill each other. Idk, that map isn't particularly interesting to me as it stands, though. Naomi referred to SOMETHING as a hydrogen bomb, though I can't actually remember whether she was talking about the angel tablet or Castiel-without-her. It was an interesting phrasing, though, considering either of those things is arguably much more catastrophic than the average H-bomb. But I guess if she were talking to the Winchesters it would've been an analogy for their benefit. XP
even if you have three people who theoretically, nominally, all want the same thing (healing and safety for everyone!), you also have three people who gradually discover that their wants aren't actually as aligned with one another as they may have originally thought or hoped.
Yes, exactly! And angels are operating from such a different frame of reference - as we saw last season, mind control is just a fact of life for them - that Zeke is almost certainly going to be far away from either Sam or Dean.
my reading of Ruby's deceit is much more charitable towards her than fandom's or, say, uh, Dean's
Agreeeed! SHE WAS A FREEDOM FIGHTER AGAINST A COSMICALLY UNJUST ORDER OKAY, WHAT, A GUY SAVES HIS WIFE FROM CANCER ONCE AND HE HAS TO SPEND ETERNITY IN GITMO? I mean, I can't get behind her methods, obviously, but I think her motives were as pure as anyone's we've seen in the series so far.
As for Ezekiel saving the day in Silkwoodtown, I don't think it really occurred to Dean that Ezekiel would be making actual, willful appearances. Now
( ... )
That was what I thought on first watch, but the second time around I was like "....wow, he found that one quick."
True that, true that! Especially given the contrast between that and his first scene with Sam at the picnic table, where he was just, all over the place. XD Subconsciously, you're right, at the very least he would have some sense that Sam is probably protected. Life may not be a rubber ball that can bounce right back into you (paraphrasing Death in 6x11), but if an angel has a stake in your brother's well-being, he's probably pretty bouncy. And by extension, so is your whole, suicidally stupid operation. Kind of like your Dean-and-Sam thoughts in the above post, I don't think it was like, a meditated pursuit that he had in front of him, necessarily, but there's a lot of basement knowledge/desire/manipulation that's at play without Dean actually focusing on or acknowledging it.
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The season is interesting in that it has a pattern of people co-opting the power from someone "above" them on the kind of cosmic scale - Hell seizes the power of human weapons; Dean uses angel power for human ends - when we've almost always seen power-seekers look downward on the cosmic chain. ie, I don't know if it was a conscious choice to have Dean reference angels as being "nukes" toward the beginning and then make the reference to Silkwood a half an hour later - ie, both Dean and Abaddon have gone nuclear.
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Yes, exactly! And angels are operating from such a different frame of reference - as we saw last season, mind control is just a fact of life for them - that Zeke is almost certainly going to be far away from either Sam or Dean.
my reading of Ruby's deceit is much more charitable towards her than fandom's or, say, uh, Dean's
Agreeeed! SHE WAS A FREEDOM FIGHTER AGAINST A COSMICALLY UNJUST ORDER OKAY, WHAT, A GUY SAVES HIS WIFE FROM CANCER ONCE AND HE HAS TO SPEND ETERNITY IN GITMO? I mean, I can't get behind her methods, obviously, but I think her motives were as pure as anyone's we've seen in the series so far.
As for Ezekiel saving the day in Silkwoodtown, I don't think it really occurred to Dean that Ezekiel would be making actual, willful appearances. Now ( ... )
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True that, true that! Especially given the contrast between that and his first scene with Sam at the picnic table, where he was just, all over the place. XD Subconsciously, you're right, at the very least he would have some sense that Sam is probably protected. Life may not be a rubber ball that can bounce right back into you (paraphrasing Death in 6x11), but if an angel has a stake in your brother's well-being, he's probably pretty bouncy. And by extension, so is your whole, suicidally stupid operation. Kind of like your Dean-and-Sam thoughts in the above post, I don't think it was like, a meditated pursuit that he had in front of him, necessarily, but there's a lot of basement knowledge/desire/manipulation that's at play without Dean actually focusing on or acknowledging it.
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