SPN 9x18 - Meta Fiction
I talked a lot in my review of the S8 finale about the mechanics (and to some extent, the dangers) of trying to make the narrative into literal truth. Sam and Cas tried to live out the story as recorded by Metatron and it damn near killed them both. Which was bad enough, but now this season we’re seeing the villainy of trying to impose your own story onto others.
The two Supernatural books Metatron is seen reading are Tall Tales and A Very Supernatural Christmas, and both tie tightly into the themes of the episode. Tall Tales, ofc, is a story where a talisman renders a story objectively true. In AVSC, there is also a talisman and an in-universe story, but in the second case the talisman is a symbol of the dissipation of the lie’s power. I don’t know if it was purposeful or not that Tall Tales is the one Metatron picks up and throws into the fire. I had a predictably visceral response to that gesture. But it’s especially powerful from the Scribe, whose whole worldview is (supposedly) predicated on the value of stories. He tries to pick and choose which stories make up the universe, but ultimately we can’t do that any more than we can create or destroy matter.
Metatron claims to value stories qua stories, but his massive effort to reify his own imagination tells a very different story. (This is similar to the issue with Magnus, whose attempt to make the MoL intangible disguised the fact that he was the ultimate materialist, and is the opposite of Gadreel’s problem of dogged attempts to take people’s stories literally.) In simply implanting his MetaWiki into Castiel’s mind, Metatron robbed Cas of the joy and curiosity and self-scrutiny that would come from choosing to explore those narratives - can he still have those “the bird represents God” moments, now that he’s going to pick up on whatever he’s told it represents? Cas simply knows such things as points of reference, in the same way he knew whatever it was that Naomi needed him to know. The more Cas proves his potential for autonomy, the harder his brothers and sisters work to scratch away at it.
Metatron lectures Cas on needing a villain. This doesn’t bring a whole lot of moral ambiguity into their storyline, since Metatron has pretty much chosen to be a villain. But it does add a few kinks to the confrontation between the Winchesters and Gadreel. They are both extremely tempted to make him their problem. This would be a mistake. Gadreel can represent the toxicity of their relationship to us, but they can’t project that problem onto him.
I don’t know where to take Gabriel’s appearance here. It could be a sign that the character is going to become a presence in the show again, and that would be great. Or it could be that he’s Metatron’s favorite, or that he’s a kick for us. The episode works if the reasons are that simple. But there’s also the possibility that Gabriel is the most wonderfully meta presence the show has to offer. Gabriel is, after all, a re-inventor of the self, who created what we think of as an archetype and then deviated from that archetype, someone who is not disturbed by or even particularly interested in this ability he shares with Metatron to create whole universes and cast others in bit parts. Metatron’s placid insistence that their choices don’t matter as long as they play their part was in some ways reminiscent of Gabriel’s desperation for Sam and Dean to “play their roles” back in S5. Only I think Gabriel was easier in a lot of ways to oppose and disregard? Gabriel was trying to insist that Sam and Dean “play the parts” of entities not themselves, and because he had a personal stake in the whole thing skewing his POV. Metatron, though, wants Sam and Dean to play the part of The Winchesters, Interchangeable Denim-Wrapped Nightmares, and he’s doing it because he can.
I was, ofc, delighted at the Meta-burn to all the “OOC!!!!” crying. If something or someone is perfect, without changes or wear and tear, it’s a sign that you shouldn’t believe what you think you see. And as smug as Metatron is in knowing that when it suits him, it’s also what tips off Castiel. Cas figures out the trick because his jacket - the iconic outer shell of his persona, even, the thing that covers the vessel that houses the grace that is used by the entity that is really Cas himself - is too consistent, too perfect.
I am really into Metatron. He’s far and away the most fun Big Bad the show’s ever had - granted, the only other one who was any fun was Dick Roman, but still - but the fun is a tragically manic attempt to escape this deep, grinding loneliness that comes through whenever he skirts a little too close to reality. Like, I think he’s funny even though I know they (specifically Gadreel and Cas) should neutralize him one way or another, but also, he kind of breaks my heart.
Even more heartbreaking is poor Gadreel, so desperate for someone to see him as useful that he’s doomed always to be used. He is Lucifer’s chump, Abner’s stepping-stone to health and normalcy, Metatron’s decoy deputy, the angels’ scapegoat, the Winchesters’ reflection…he takes everyone’s lies as true, and therefore erases his own self. Gadreel takes Metatron’s comparison to a “funhouse mirror” and then acts it out with both Sam and Dean.
And it works on Sam. Sam is (understandably) trying to avoid the truth of the Gadreel situation, to a point where he didn’t access the extremely useful memories of Gadreel meeting with Metatron. I do think Gadreel was on the money with Sam being supersaturated with shame. I don’t usually think of Sam as being weak - quite the opposite - but IMO if someone can make you lose your shit in fifteen words or less, that is a pretty major psychological vulnerability. Nobody’s been able to get to him like that since Ruby, maybe even John.
He’s less successful with Dean, because Dean is finally running out of ways to distort the truth. I laughed a lot at the repeated instances of Dean staring at himself in the mirror, but that’s only because, you know, it was pretty funny. But that’s the point of the Mark of Cain storyline, is that Dean is finally taking a hard look at what he’s turned himself into, wiping away the fog and dust. It goes back to Metatron’s issue - Dean tried to force his lie (as personified by Gadreel) onto Sam, and it’s ultimately forced him to see the unpleasant truth about himself.
Deliciously twisted Messiah motif throughout - Gabriel compares himself to Christ after his apparent return, while Cas is fraudulently tricked into messianic behavior, which is supposed to make him the villain of the piece. Possibly relatedly, I’m a little intrigued by Sam’s plan to “sneak onboard the death star.” This could be the twist on the “sent Abel to Heaven” parallel? Sam goes to Heaven - “dies” - in order to fix a tablet problem, which gives him some closure from the abandoned attempt on the Hell-tablet? WILD, TOTALLY RIDICULOUS SPECULATION, YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST, FOLKS.
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