Walking off the chessboard: part 4
This is the longest part! Bear with me, it's also probably the most complicated and delicate part to explain. Hopefully I did it justice.
Walking off the chessboard: Sam and Lucifer and the role of the Scapegoat in SPN
( master post)
Part 4
Perpetuating the role of Scapegoat
One of the catch-22’s that the Scapegoat faces is that rebelling against the dysfunctional family system can paradoxically continue it, because by reacting against the family the Scapegoat is still accepting the role that’s been placed on him, perpetuating his own position in the family as nexus of all that’s wrong. And because the Scapegoat eventually internalizes these judgments, he can come to agree with them down deep: become convinced of his own wrongness and failure, even accept that he’s the monster he feels like his family has cast him to be. The role is cyclical: the family blames the Scapegoat for the dysfunction everyone is otherwise ignoring, in reaction the Scapegoat acts out, then the family reacts to that behavior and so reinforces their own treatment of him.
This dynamic is illustrated in a nutshell in the season 1 character of Max, in “Nightmare”: Max’s father blames him for the death of his mother, making Max into a Scapegoat, and unlike John, physically abusing him as a result. Which causes Max to act out, violently killing the men who had abused him and threatening his stepmother who had done nothing to stop it. Max’s behavior, though sparked by the way his family treated him, in turn causes Sam and Dean to confront and try to stop him. The cycle continues until Max kills himself. Max serves as a foil for Sam in his role of Scapegoat, anticipating some of the reactions Sam exhibits in season 4 and showing just how the dysfunctional family’s treatment of the Scapegoat contributes to the Scapegoat’s behavior, and how that behavior can then reinforce the role.
By continually reacting against John in season 1, Sam gives the very behavior he’s critiquing legitimacy and power, and in a sense turns the scapegoating he’s experiencing right around onto his father, pinning everything that’s wrong with his life onto John.
It’s not that Sam is wrong in his truth-telling about how John (or later Dean) treats him. It’s that he doesn’t move beyond an airing of grievances to independent, adult action regardless of what his father or brother thinks. He might protest their way of doing things, but he doesn’t step out of their framework to find his own way. And once John dies and leaves a vacuum (removes himself as the source of what’s wrong with Sam’s life), Sam does an abrupt about-face, as Dean points out in “Everybody Loves a Clown,” accepting what he’d previously resisted, following his father’s wishes:
2.02
SAM
Dad would have wanted me to stick with the job.
DEAN
Since when do you give a damn what Dad wanted? You spent half your life doing exactly what he didn't want, Sam.
SAM
Since he died, okay? Do you have a problem with that?
By still accepting the legitimacy of the family framework even as he protests against it, Sam plays his role. This just highlights how very difficult it can be for family members to both identify the role they’re playing in the dysfunction and to step out of that role, if even protesting the dysfunction simultaneously can enmesh you in it.
The second trap the Scapegoat faces is internalizing that feeling of being fundamentally flawed, wrong, monstrous. We see Sam start to articulate this as early as season 1, when he takes responsibility for deaths that he had no way of preventing:
1.20
SAM
So, basically, this demon is goin' after these kids for some reason- the same way it came for me? So, Mom's death, Jessica- it's all 'cause of me?
DEAN
We don't know that, Sam.
SAM
Oh, really, 'cause I'd say we're pretty damn sure, Dean.
DEAN
For the last time, what happened to them is not your fault.
SAM
Yeah, you're right, it's not my fault, but it's my problem!
As Sam and Dean discover more about the YED’s chosen children, Sam moves from accepting responsibility for deaths caused by the YED to believing he might be destined to actively start harming others:
2.05
SAM
This Andrew Gallagher, he's the second guy like this we've found, Dean. Demon came to them when they were kids, now they're killing people. [...]
DEAN
What's your point?
SAM
My point is, I'm one of them. ...Dean, the demon said he had plans for me and children like me. ...maybe this is his plan, maybe we're all a bunch of psychic freaks, maybe we're all supposed to be-
DEAN
What, killers?
SAM
Yeah.
The more Sam buys into this “truth” about his supposed monstrous destiny, the farther he loses sight of those family truths he once excelled at pointing out. Over the course of the show, Sam goes from rebelling against the idea that he’s a part of the Winchester Family Mission to fully embracing it and rationalizing his father’s behavior as well as his own. And slowly during seasons 2 and 3 we see Dean taking a more active role of teller of family truths in his place:
2.11
SAM
No, Dean, you don't understand, all right? The more people I save, the more I can change!
DEAN
Change what?
SAM
My destiny, Dean! ...I need you to watch out for me.
DEAN
Yeah. I always do.
SAM
No! No, no, no. You have to watch out for me, all right? And if I ever turn into something that I'm not, You have to kill me. ...Dean! Dad told you to do it, you have to.
DEAN
Yeah, well, Dad's an ass. He never should have said anything, I mean, you don't do that, you don't, you don't lay that kind of crap on your kids.
SAM
No. He was right to say it! Who knows what I might become? Even now, everyone around me dies!
Add to that the increasing pressure of the YED’s plan for the psychic children, and Sam starts to accept that he fits into the role of Scapegoat that his family had originally thrust on him.
In season 3, Sam’s role of Scapegoat takes a backseat, with the exception of Gordon Walker’s condemnation of him as an inhuman monster to be put down. It’s in season four that Sam starts to really fall into that self-fulfilling prophecy that so many Scapegoats find difficult to escape.
Feeling as if he’s failed to save his brother from hell, wracked with guilt over it, and lacking any other framework for dealing with the loss, Sam embraces what he knows from his father: the vengeance quest and the Winchester Family Mission. Ruby steps forward and tells him that everything that he’s always thought was wrong with him -- his demonic taint, his psychic powers -- can be used for good, for the mission. Even so, Sam doesn’t let go of the idea that he’s monstrous; he just decides to use his perceived monstrosity much the way Gordon Walker does after he’s turned into a vampire: to do what he sees as right.
Whether or not his full demon-ganking powers require the ingestion of demon blood (this has been debated in fandom, I wobble on the side of yes), and in the absence of any other counsel but Ruby’s, Sam embraces what he’d previously struggled against becoming. Before Dean’s return from hell, Sam has nothing left to lose. When Dean returns, however, Sam is thrust back into his family dynamic. Knowing that Dean had disapproved of his use of his power and made him promise not to use them, Sam attempts to keep what he’s doing with Ruby a secret. This comes to a head when Dean confronts him in “Metamorphosis”:
4.04
SAM
The knife kills the victim! What I do, most of them survive! Look, I've saved more people in the last five months than we save in a year.
DEAN
That what Ruby wants you to think? Huh? Kind of like the way she tricked you into using your powers? Slippery slope, brother. Just wait and see. Because it's gonna get darker and darker, and God knows where it ends.
SAM
I'm not gonna let it go too far.
DEAN
It's already gone too far, Sam. If I didn't you know... I would wanna hunt you. And so would other hunters.
SAM
You were gone. I was here. I had to keep on fighting without you. And what I'm doing... It works.
DEAN
Well, tell me. If it's so terrific... then why'd you lie about it to me?
Whether or not Dean’s correct about the slippery slope (one could argue the possibility that it’s not the use of the powers that’s the slippery slope, but the choices Sam makes around their use; and certainly the ingestion of demon blood proves to have physical consequences akin to drug addiction; addiction being another common trait among Scapegoats), by hiding what he’s doing and lying about it to his brother, Sam refuses to take responsibility for his own choices and perpetuates his role as Scapegoat. And he continues to struggle with the judgment of himself as monstrous, as seen in this exchange with the MoTW in “Metamorphosis,” where he tries to articulate a sense that he can step outside the role while still accepting that he carries some kind of inherent taint:
4.04
SAM
Listen to me. You got this dark pit inside you. I know. Believe me, I know. But that doesn't mean you have to fall into it. You don't have to be a monster.
JACK
Have you seen me lately?
SAM
It doesn't matter what you are. It only matters what you do. It's your choice.
In the same episode, Sam takes a step towards leaving behind the Scapegoat role and owning his own choices when he tells Dean he’s going to stop using the powers, not because Dean has asked him to do so, but for his own reasons:
SAM
[T]his thing, this blood, it's not in you the way it's in me. It's just something I got to deal with. ...These powers... it's playing with fire. I'm done with them. I'm done with everything.
DEAN
Really? Well, that's a relief. Thank you.
SAM
Don't thank me. I'm not doing it for you. Or for the angels or for anybody. This is my choice.
However, the pressures of the season come to bear three episodes later in 4.07, when he uses his powers to defeat Samhain, saving himself, Dean, and the town Uriel had threatened to smite; and again in 4.09 when he attempts to use them against Alastair, again in self-defense. And though he no longer is keeping the use of the power secret from Dean, he continues to hide the fact that he is ingesting Ruby’s blood.
Dean isn’t the only person who warns Sam against the use of his powers. Both Uriel and Castiel do so, though they aren’t the most unbiased of sources. Less entangled in the politics of dysfunctional families, and possibly therefore more neutral, are Pamela and Chuck, who both question Sam on what he’s doing and appear to have Sam’s best interests at heart:
4.18
SAM
Have you seen visions of me when I'm not with Dean?
CHUCK
Oh... You want to know if I know about the demon blood.
SAM
You didn't tell Dean.
CHUCK
I didn't even write it into the books. I was afraid it would make you look unsympathetic.
SAM
Unsympathetic?
CHUCK
Yeah, come on, Sam. I mean, sucking blood? You got to know that's wrong.
SAM
It scares the hell out of me. I mean, I feel it inside of me. I... I wish to god I could stop.
CHUCK
But you keep going back.
SAM
What choice have I got? If it helps me kill Lilith and stop the apocalypse --
CHUCK
I thought that was Dean's job. That's what the Angels say, right?
SAM
Dean’s not...he's not Dean lately. Since he got out of hell. He needs help.
CHUCK
So you got to carry the weight?
SAM
Well, he's looked after me my whole life. I can't return the favor?
CHUCK
Yeah, sure you can. I mean if that's what this is.
SAM
What else would it be?
CHUCK
I don't know. Maybe the demon blood makes you feel stronger? More in control?
SAM
No. That's not true.
Note Sam’s initial emphasis on keeping the secret from Dean, and Dean’s place in his rationalization -- that Sam must step up to fill a gap (play a role) that he sees Dean as abandoning since Hell. This theme of Sam’s perception of Dean as weak is also featured in “Sex and Violence” and “On the Head of a Pin,” and just emphasizes the extent Sam’s thinking is tangled up in the family dynamic, which only undercuts his denial of Chuck’s question about whether the blood makes him feel stronger and more in control.
By this point Sam isn’t denying that what he’s doing might be wrong (he even expresses a wish that he could stop), but he is rationalizing his actions as the only pragmatic solution to Lilith’s threat -- unknowingly playing right into Ruby’s plans to make him the ultimate Scapegoat -- the one who releases Lucifer. Chuck’s description of Sam’s actions as “unsympathetic” again emphasize the very Scapegoatness of what he’s doing - and emphasizes the monstrousness of blood drinking. This exchange drives home once again the comparison between Sam’s actions in season 4 with what Gordon Walker did in “Fresh Blood”: both give in to what they see as their own monstrosity in order to achieve righteous goals. And both of their “righteous” goals are based on false conclusions -- Gordon believes that Sam is the antichrist, while Sam believes that killing Lilith will stop the breaking of the seals and the release of Lucifer, when in fact the opposite is true.
The tension between Sam and Dean comes to a head in “When the Levee Breaks” when Dean asks Sam to ditch Ruby and Sam refuses:
4.21
DEAN
Because it's not something that you're doing, it's what you are! It means-
SAM
What? No. Say it.
DEAN
It means you're a monster.
In 4.14, Dean had originally placed blame for the change he saw in Sam on Sam’s lies (his behavior) and not the demon blood (his inherent existence); after witnessing the effects of Sam’s withdrawal, Dean speaks aloud Sam’s greatest fear (which to this point Dean had always rejected), and Sam understandably reacts. But again: Sam is accepting that frame: that he might be monstrous, that he should continue playing the role of Scapegoat.
How does this play out for Sam at the season’s end? Through consciously doing wrong for what he sees as the right reasons. Gordon Walker had a choice: he knew very well that there were vampires who had claimed to resist drinking human blood; and yet he chose to kill people because he believed he himself had become a monster, incapable of anything else (he never believed the vampire Lenore’s story of abstinence, so he was unable to accept the possibility), and because he thought the power he got from being a vampire gave him the strength to kill Sam. When Sam talked to Chuck in 4.18 he was still at an ambiguous point: drinking the blood of an empty vessel whose inhabitant had given him consent. By the season finale, however, he gives only a token protest to draining the blood of a possessed woman against her will, knowing it is the woman and not the demon who will suffer. By doing so he finally gives in to the supposed destiny he has been struggling against since the first season.
How he’s reached this point is complex: he’s reacting not just to how he’s been treated within his family system, but specifically to Dean’s labeling him a monster in the previous episode. However, he alone makes the choice to do wrong for a cause he thinks is righteous.
The confrontation between Sam and Ruby after Sam has broken the last seal hints at the cycle, the perpetuation of his role, that the Scapegoat faces:
4.22
SAM
The blood... You poisoned me.
RUBY
No. It wasn't the blood. It was you... and your choices. I just gave you the options, and you chose the right path every time. You didn't need the feather to fly, you had it in you the whole time, Dumbo! I know it's hard to see it now... but this is a miracle. So long coming. Everything Azazel did, and Lilith did. Just to get you here. And you were the only one who could do it.
In shock, Sam tries to pass responsibility for what’s happened onto Ruby and the blood he’s consumed. And while Ruby confirms the manipulation that Sam’s faced from Azazel, Lilith and Ruby herself, she is correct: Sam’s choices were made freely, and in the face of repeated advice from friends and family that he reconsider what he was doing.
It’s the Scapegoat’s dilemma in a nutshell. By choosing a path where the ends justify the means -- where murdering a possessed woman and drinking demon blood, despite how he felt it changing him, were viewed as a necessary trade off to defeating Lilith -- Sam succumbed to the belief system he tried to buck back when he left for Stanford -- to John’s way of looking at the world. And as a result Sam perpetuates his role as Scapegoat within his family, confirming his own fear that he is a monster. By ensuring Lucifer’s escape, Sam’s actions in turn cause him to fill the role of Scapegoat to the Apocalypse. So the cycle continued on.
( part 5)
***Please note that in discussions to these posts (assuming there are any!) I'm going to insist that the terms be used as intended here, and not with a wider or more general definition (for example, there is a clinical definition of "depression" that differs from the more general use of the word "depression" -- this is a similar case). Minimizing arguments like "all families are dysfunctional in their way" or anything that starts to stray into rehashing of old fandom wars over Season 4 will be heavily moderated. But please feel free to ask questions!***
Walking off the chessboard: Sam and Lucifer and the role of the Scapegoat in SPN
( master post)
Part 4
Perpetuating the role of Scapegoat
One of the catch-22’s that the Scapegoat faces is that rebelling against the dysfunctional family system can paradoxically continue it, because by reacting against the family the Scapegoat is still accepting the role that’s been placed on him, perpetuating his own position in the family as nexus of all that’s wrong. And because the Scapegoat eventually internalizes these judgments, he can come to agree with them down deep: become convinced of his own wrongness and failure, even accept that he’s the monster he feels like his family has cast him to be. The role is cyclical: the family blames the Scapegoat for the dysfunction everyone is otherwise ignoring, in reaction the Scapegoat acts out, then the family reacts to that behavior and so reinforces their own treatment of him.
This dynamic is illustrated in a nutshell in the season 1 character of Max, in “Nightmare”: Max’s father blames him for the death of his mother, making Max into a Scapegoat, and unlike John, physically abusing him as a result. Which causes Max to act out, violently killing the men who had abused him and threatening his stepmother who had done nothing to stop it. Max’s behavior, though sparked by the way his family treated him, in turn causes Sam and Dean to confront and try to stop him. The cycle continues until Max kills himself. Max serves as a foil for Sam in his role of Scapegoat, anticipating some of the reactions Sam exhibits in season 4 and showing just how the dysfunctional family’s treatment of the Scapegoat contributes to the Scapegoat’s behavior, and how that behavior can then reinforce the role.
By continually reacting against John in season 1, Sam gives the very behavior he’s critiquing legitimacy and power, and in a sense turns the scapegoating he’s experiencing right around onto his father, pinning everything that’s wrong with his life onto John.
It’s not that Sam is wrong in his truth-telling about how John (or later Dean) treats him. It’s that he doesn’t move beyond an airing of grievances to independent, adult action regardless of what his father or brother thinks. He might protest their way of doing things, but he doesn’t step out of their framework to find his own way. And once John dies and leaves a vacuum (removes himself as the source of what’s wrong with Sam’s life), Sam does an abrupt about-face, as Dean points out in “Everybody Loves a Clown,” accepting what he’d previously resisted, following his father’s wishes:
2.02
SAM
Dad would have wanted me to stick with the job.
DEAN
Since when do you give a damn what Dad wanted? You spent half your life doing exactly what he didn't want, Sam.
SAM
Since he died, okay? Do you have a problem with that?
By still accepting the legitimacy of the family framework even as he protests against it, Sam plays his role. This just highlights how very difficult it can be for family members to both identify the role they’re playing in the dysfunction and to step out of that role, if even protesting the dysfunction simultaneously can enmesh you in it.
The second trap the Scapegoat faces is internalizing that feeling of being fundamentally flawed, wrong, monstrous. We see Sam start to articulate this as early as season 1, when he takes responsibility for deaths that he had no way of preventing:
1.20
SAM
So, basically, this demon is goin' after these kids for some reason- the same way it came for me? So, Mom's death, Jessica- it's all 'cause of me?
DEAN
We don't know that, Sam.
SAM
Oh, really, 'cause I'd say we're pretty damn sure, Dean.
DEAN
For the last time, what happened to them is not your fault.
SAM
Yeah, you're right, it's not my fault, but it's my problem!
As Sam and Dean discover more about the YED’s chosen children, Sam moves from accepting responsibility for deaths caused by the YED to believing he might be destined to actively start harming others:
2.05
SAM
This Andrew Gallagher, he's the second guy like this we've found, Dean. Demon came to them when they were kids, now they're killing people. [...]
DEAN
What's your point?
SAM
My point is, I'm one of them. ...Dean, the demon said he had plans for me and children like me. ...maybe this is his plan, maybe we're all a bunch of psychic freaks, maybe we're all supposed to be-
DEAN
What, killers?
SAM
Yeah.
The more Sam buys into this “truth” about his supposed monstrous destiny, the farther he loses sight of those family truths he once excelled at pointing out. Over the course of the show, Sam goes from rebelling against the idea that he’s a part of the Winchester Family Mission to fully embracing it and rationalizing his father’s behavior as well as his own. And slowly during seasons 2 and 3 we see Dean taking a more active role of teller of family truths in his place:
2.11
SAM
No, Dean, you don't understand, all right? The more people I save, the more I can change!
DEAN
Change what?
SAM
My destiny, Dean! ...I need you to watch out for me.
DEAN
Yeah. I always do.
SAM
No! No, no, no. You have to watch out for me, all right? And if I ever turn into something that I'm not, You have to kill me. ...Dean! Dad told you to do it, you have to.
DEAN
Yeah, well, Dad's an ass. He never should have said anything, I mean, you don't do that, you don't, you don't lay that kind of crap on your kids.
SAM
No. He was right to say it! Who knows what I might become? Even now, everyone around me dies!
Add to that the increasing pressure of the YED’s plan for the psychic children, and Sam starts to accept that he fits into the role of Scapegoat that his family had originally thrust on him.
In season 3, Sam’s role of Scapegoat takes a backseat, with the exception of Gordon Walker’s condemnation of him as an inhuman monster to be put down. It’s in season four that Sam starts to really fall into that self-fulfilling prophecy that so many Scapegoats find difficult to escape.
Feeling as if he’s failed to save his brother from hell, wracked with guilt over it, and lacking any other framework for dealing with the loss, Sam embraces what he knows from his father: the vengeance quest and the Winchester Family Mission. Ruby steps forward and tells him that everything that he’s always thought was wrong with him -- his demonic taint, his psychic powers -- can be used for good, for the mission. Even so, Sam doesn’t let go of the idea that he’s monstrous; he just decides to use his perceived monstrosity much the way Gordon Walker does after he’s turned into a vampire: to do what he sees as right.
Whether or not his full demon-ganking powers require the ingestion of demon blood (this has been debated in fandom, I wobble on the side of yes), and in the absence of any other counsel but Ruby’s, Sam embraces what he’d previously struggled against becoming. Before Dean’s return from hell, Sam has nothing left to lose. When Dean returns, however, Sam is thrust back into his family dynamic. Knowing that Dean had disapproved of his use of his power and made him promise not to use them, Sam attempts to keep what he’s doing with Ruby a secret. This comes to a head when Dean confronts him in “Metamorphosis”:
4.04
SAM
The knife kills the victim! What I do, most of them survive! Look, I've saved more people in the last five months than we save in a year.
DEAN
That what Ruby wants you to think? Huh? Kind of like the way she tricked you into using your powers? Slippery slope, brother. Just wait and see. Because it's gonna get darker and darker, and God knows where it ends.
SAM
I'm not gonna let it go too far.
DEAN
It's already gone too far, Sam. If I didn't you know... I would wanna hunt you. And so would other hunters.
SAM
You were gone. I was here. I had to keep on fighting without you. And what I'm doing... It works.
DEAN
Well, tell me. If it's so terrific... then why'd you lie about it to me?
Whether or not Dean’s correct about the slippery slope (one could argue the possibility that it’s not the use of the powers that’s the slippery slope, but the choices Sam makes around their use; and certainly the ingestion of demon blood proves to have physical consequences akin to drug addiction; addiction being another common trait among Scapegoats), by hiding what he’s doing and lying about it to his brother, Sam refuses to take responsibility for his own choices and perpetuates his role as Scapegoat. And he continues to struggle with the judgment of himself as monstrous, as seen in this exchange with the MoTW in “Metamorphosis,” where he tries to articulate a sense that he can step outside the role while still accepting that he carries some kind of inherent taint:
4.04
SAM
Listen to me. You got this dark pit inside you. I know. Believe me, I know. But that doesn't mean you have to fall into it. You don't have to be a monster.
JACK
Have you seen me lately?
SAM
It doesn't matter what you are. It only matters what you do. It's your choice.
In the same episode, Sam takes a step towards leaving behind the Scapegoat role and owning his own choices when he tells Dean he’s going to stop using the powers, not because Dean has asked him to do so, but for his own reasons:
SAM
[T]his thing, this blood, it's not in you the way it's in me. It's just something I got to deal with. ...These powers... it's playing with fire. I'm done with them. I'm done with everything.
DEAN
Really? Well, that's a relief. Thank you.
SAM
Don't thank me. I'm not doing it for you. Or for the angels or for anybody. This is my choice.
However, the pressures of the season come to bear three episodes later in 4.07, when he uses his powers to defeat Samhain, saving himself, Dean, and the town Uriel had threatened to smite; and again in 4.09 when he attempts to use them against Alastair, again in self-defense. And though he no longer is keeping the use of the power secret from Dean, he continues to hide the fact that he is ingesting Ruby’s blood.
Dean isn’t the only person who warns Sam against the use of his powers. Both Uriel and Castiel do so, though they aren’t the most unbiased of sources. Less entangled in the politics of dysfunctional families, and possibly therefore more neutral, are Pamela and Chuck, who both question Sam on what he’s doing and appear to have Sam’s best interests at heart:
4.18
SAM
Have you seen visions of me when I'm not with Dean?
CHUCK
Oh... You want to know if I know about the demon blood.
SAM
You didn't tell Dean.
CHUCK
I didn't even write it into the books. I was afraid it would make you look unsympathetic.
SAM
Unsympathetic?
CHUCK
Yeah, come on, Sam. I mean, sucking blood? You got to know that's wrong.
SAM
It scares the hell out of me. I mean, I feel it inside of me. I... I wish to god I could stop.
CHUCK
But you keep going back.
SAM
What choice have I got? If it helps me kill Lilith and stop the apocalypse --
CHUCK
I thought that was Dean's job. That's what the Angels say, right?
SAM
Dean’s not...he's not Dean lately. Since he got out of hell. He needs help.
CHUCK
So you got to carry the weight?
SAM
Well, he's looked after me my whole life. I can't return the favor?
CHUCK
Yeah, sure you can. I mean if that's what this is.
SAM
What else would it be?
CHUCK
I don't know. Maybe the demon blood makes you feel stronger? More in control?
SAM
No. That's not true.
Note Sam’s initial emphasis on keeping the secret from Dean, and Dean’s place in his rationalization -- that Sam must step up to fill a gap (play a role) that he sees Dean as abandoning since Hell. This theme of Sam’s perception of Dean as weak is also featured in “Sex and Violence” and “On the Head of a Pin,” and just emphasizes the extent Sam’s thinking is tangled up in the family dynamic, which only undercuts his denial of Chuck’s question about whether the blood makes him feel stronger and more in control.
By this point Sam isn’t denying that what he’s doing might be wrong (he even expresses a wish that he could stop), but he is rationalizing his actions as the only pragmatic solution to Lilith’s threat -- unknowingly playing right into Ruby’s plans to make him the ultimate Scapegoat -- the one who releases Lucifer. Chuck’s description of Sam’s actions as “unsympathetic” again emphasize the very Scapegoatness of what he’s doing - and emphasizes the monstrousness of blood drinking. This exchange drives home once again the comparison between Sam’s actions in season 4 with what Gordon Walker did in “Fresh Blood”: both give in to what they see as their own monstrosity in order to achieve righteous goals. And both of their “righteous” goals are based on false conclusions -- Gordon believes that Sam is the antichrist, while Sam believes that killing Lilith will stop the breaking of the seals and the release of Lucifer, when in fact the opposite is true.
The tension between Sam and Dean comes to a head in “When the Levee Breaks” when Dean asks Sam to ditch Ruby and Sam refuses:
4.21
DEAN
Because it's not something that you're doing, it's what you are! It means-
SAM
What? No. Say it.
DEAN
It means you're a monster.
In 4.14, Dean had originally placed blame for the change he saw in Sam on Sam’s lies (his behavior) and not the demon blood (his inherent existence); after witnessing the effects of Sam’s withdrawal, Dean speaks aloud Sam’s greatest fear (which to this point Dean had always rejected), and Sam understandably reacts. But again: Sam is accepting that frame: that he might be monstrous, that he should continue playing the role of Scapegoat.
How does this play out for Sam at the season’s end? Through consciously doing wrong for what he sees as the right reasons. Gordon Walker had a choice: he knew very well that there were vampires who had claimed to resist drinking human blood; and yet he chose to kill people because he believed he himself had become a monster, incapable of anything else (he never believed the vampire Lenore’s story of abstinence, so he was unable to accept the possibility), and because he thought the power he got from being a vampire gave him the strength to kill Sam. When Sam talked to Chuck in 4.18 he was still at an ambiguous point: drinking the blood of an empty vessel whose inhabitant had given him consent. By the season finale, however, he gives only a token protest to draining the blood of a possessed woman against her will, knowing it is the woman and not the demon who will suffer. By doing so he finally gives in to the supposed destiny he has been struggling against since the first season.
How he’s reached this point is complex: he’s reacting not just to how he’s been treated within his family system, but specifically to Dean’s labeling him a monster in the previous episode. However, he alone makes the choice to do wrong for a cause he thinks is righteous.
The confrontation between Sam and Ruby after Sam has broken the last seal hints at the cycle, the perpetuation of his role, that the Scapegoat faces:
4.22
SAM
The blood... You poisoned me.
RUBY
No. It wasn't the blood. It was you... and your choices. I just gave you the options, and you chose the right path every time. You didn't need the feather to fly, you had it in you the whole time, Dumbo! I know it's hard to see it now... but this is a miracle. So long coming. Everything Azazel did, and Lilith did. Just to get you here. And you were the only one who could do it.
In shock, Sam tries to pass responsibility for what’s happened onto Ruby and the blood he’s consumed. And while Ruby confirms the manipulation that Sam’s faced from Azazel, Lilith and Ruby herself, she is correct: Sam’s choices were made freely, and in the face of repeated advice from friends and family that he reconsider what he was doing.
It’s the Scapegoat’s dilemma in a nutshell. By choosing a path where the ends justify the means -- where murdering a possessed woman and drinking demon blood, despite how he felt it changing him, were viewed as a necessary trade off to defeating Lilith -- Sam succumbed to the belief system he tried to buck back when he left for Stanford -- to John’s way of looking at the world. And as a result Sam perpetuates his role as Scapegoat within his family, confirming his own fear that he is a monster. By ensuring Lucifer’s escape, Sam’s actions in turn cause him to fill the role of Scapegoat to the Apocalypse. So the cycle continued on.
( part 5)
***Please note that in discussions to these posts (assuming there are any!) I'm going to insist that the terms be used as intended here, and not with a wider or more general definition (for example, there is a clinical definition of "depression" that differs from the more general use of the word "depression" -- this is a similar case). Minimizing arguments like "all families are dysfunctional in their way" or anything that starts to stray into rehashing of old fandom wars over Season 4 will be heavily moderated. But please feel free to ask questions!***