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SPN 7.09 How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn't exist.
-- Charles Baudelaire
Apathy versus appetite.
We know that the Leviathans are all about their appetites. They are hungry. But they also aspire. They have ambition. They aren't just monsters with big teeth and a human meatsicle menu. They are looking at a bigger picture.
The opposite of appetite is apathy. Not hungering for anything.
Bobby and Sam are concerned about Dean's apathetic attitude. They think this is new, that it's ever since Sam went full-on cuckoo for cocoa puffs, since Dean lost Castiel as his friend.
Bobby: I want to talk about your new party line... The world is a suicide case; we save it, it just steals more pills.
Dean: Bobby, I'm here, okay? I'm on the case. So what's the problem?
Bobby: I've seen a lot of hunters live and die. You're starting to talk like one of the dead ones, Dean.
DING DING DING!!! Nice to see Bobby finally cotton on, it's only been a building issue with Dean for the last several years. Of course, part of the problem is that Dean's been good at just sucking it up and deflecting.
Castiel: What I don't understand is...where is your hunger, Dean?
Dean: Huh?
Castiel: Well, slowly but surely, everyone in this town is falling prey to Famine, but so far, you seem unaffected.
Famine: That's one deep, dark nothing you got there, Dean. Can't fill it, can you? Not with food or drink. Not even with sex.
Dean: Oh, you're so full of crap.
Famine: Oh, you can smirk and joke and lie to your brother, lie to yourself, but not to me! I can see inside you, Dean. I can see how broken you are, how defeated. You can't win, and you know it. But you just keep fighting. Just... keep going through the motions. You're not hungry, Dean, because inside, you're already...dead. (5.14)
That is what Bobby and Sam are worried about with Dean. He has spent so many years dealing with the "bigger picture" that it did a real number on him.
Dean: I'm talking the way a person talks when they've had it. When they can't figure out why they used to think all this mattered.
Dean: What if the bus wants to go over the cliff?
Sam: You think the world wants to end?
Dean: I think that if we didn't take its belt and all its pens away each year that, yeah, the whole enchilada woulda offed itself already.
Bobby: Stop trying to wrestle with the big picture, son.
Reading between the lines is not difficult. We've seen Dean dancing with this question about death ever since he first met Reaper!Tessa. What if Dean wants to go over the cliff?
Dean to Tessa: I just...I wish I had gone with you for good. (4.15)
Quite a different tune from his original sense of drive.
Remember the guy who used to take satisfaction in the hunt? The first time we saw Dean hunting in the woods, which this episode called back to in several ways, we were given an insider's look at what motivated him, what gave him a reason to do what he does.
Sam: How do you do it? How does Dad do it?
Dean: Well for one, them. I mean, our family's so screwed to hell, maybe we can help some others. Makes things a little bit more bearable. And I'll tell you what else helps. Killing as many evil sons-of-bitches as I possibly can. (1.02)
Dean had a focus that helped him keep it together, to not only keep putting one foot in front of the other, but to find meaning in being a hunter. Helping people. Accomplishing some saves. Life has beaten him down to the point that he's lost sight of his former motivation.
Dean: Look at our lives. How many more hits can we take? ... We never catch a break. So why would we this time? (7.01)
And it would appear that the hits keep on coming. No more driving around in Baby (home, the one constant that was/is his), the Impala parked for his own greater good to stay below the radar. A brother that doesn't need saving -- Sam's a big boy who has to save himself from his own Satan-vision. Too many people lost, friends and family mother, father, Ellen, Jo, Pamela, Castiel, etc. Not everyone has a special "in" with Death, after all.
Well, what about Sam? The other Winchester in the picture. He's dealing with some horrendous losses too. So how is he coping? What gives him that motivation to overcome the horrorshow of his own memories and keep putting one foot in front of the other?
Hell!Sam: Why is this so important to you?
Sam: You know me, you know why. I'm not leaving my brother alone out there. (6.22)
Dean to Sam: You gotta believe me. You've got to make it stone number one and build on it. (7.02)
Dean IS Sam's motivation right now.
Bobby: You worry about him, all he does is worry about you. Who's left to live their own life here? The two of you. Aren't you full up just playing Snuffleupagus with the devil all the live long?
Sam: I don't know, Bobby. Seeing Lucifer is fine with me.
Bobby: Come again?
Sam: Look, I'm not saying it's fun. To be honest with you I kinda see it as the best case scenario. At least all my crazy is under one umbrella, you know? I kinda know what I'm dealing with. A lot of people have had worse.
He is holding on for Dean, because of Dean. He needs Dean to be okay just as much as Dean needs him to be okay, and he's not entirely sure how to help Dean, other than to be there for Dean in any way Dean will allow. Hmm, sounds familiar.
Ambition and apathy. Leviathan!Dick apparently knows a lot about motivational speaking, which translates to understanding plain old motivation.
There's a reason Dick has his rules.
Dick: I asked for complacency. Not complacency and a .03% margin of hyperadrenalized cannibalism... Have I ever mentioned how I feel about our little forays making the papers?
Dick: The golden rule is there is no such thing as monsters. Anything that stirs their little pots to the contrary is very bad for our plans.
Dick preaches cultivating complacency so as to not stir the wrong pot. It's ironic that he may have unintentionally poked the beehive by putting a bullet into Bobby Singer.
The Winchesters are not the only ones trying to stay off the radar. Hunter and hunted, wearing the same hats.
Bobby: You find your reasons to get back in the game. I don't care if it's love, or spite, or a $10 bet.
Make Dean believe that the world keeps trying to send itself to hell in a handbasket, he can justify staying in the mental slump he's stuck in.
Make him believe in monsters that need to be stopped again, he is given a new/old reason to get back to business.
Hallucination!Lucifer: Your world is whatever I want it to be, understand? (7.02)
The power of the mind. Find something to believe in, and you can make it real.
When Dean truly believes in something, he is an unstoppable force of nature. Not because he is the biggest, toughest, smartest, strongest whatever guy in the room. But because he just won't quit.
When Sam truly believes in something he is an unstoppable force of nature. Because he won't accept otherwise.
When Sam and Dean are both on the same page, believing as one in what is important, what needs to be done?
They save the world.
Right now Sam is going to have to believe enough for the both of them. He has the reason to hold on, to not be lost in his own mind: he is determined to not leave his brother alone in the world. Maybe it's not the healthiest way of dealing with his own issues, but it is keeping him upright and moving forward. That's a starting point. Focusing on a smaller picture that personally matters, gives meaning to each day. Saving people, hunting things. Save your brother, as you save each other. Dean doesn't realize he is helping save Sam just by being there, being Sam's reason. Literally.
The Winchesters are stripping back to basics; family is the most important thing. The question we are left tripping over is what happens when another piece of family gets taken away? Possibly, maybe.
Have I mentioned lately that cliffhangers are evil? Because they are. Either Bobby survives or he doesn't. I am not spoiled and don't know yet. Either way, judging by past Winchester history, that just may be the Leviathans' biggest mistake if it succeeds in lighting a fire under Dean's butt. Either Dean goes off the rails, or he pulls it together and steps up to meet the challenge. (Or, umm... both. Possibly simultaneously. What? He's a Winchester. That's totally possible.)
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn't exist.
-- Charles Baudelaire
Apathy versus appetite.
We know that the Leviathans are all about their appetites. They are hungry. But they also aspire. They have ambition. They aren't just monsters with big teeth and a human meatsicle menu. They are looking at a bigger picture.
The opposite of appetite is apathy. Not hungering for anything.
Bobby and Sam are concerned about Dean's apathetic attitude. They think this is new, that it's ever since Sam went full-on cuckoo for cocoa puffs, since Dean lost Castiel as his friend.
Bobby: I want to talk about your new party line... The world is a suicide case; we save it, it just steals more pills.
Dean: Bobby, I'm here, okay? I'm on the case. So what's the problem?
Bobby: I've seen a lot of hunters live and die. You're starting to talk like one of the dead ones, Dean.
DING DING DING!!! Nice to see Bobby finally cotton on, it's only been a building issue with Dean for the last several years. Of course, part of the problem is that Dean's been good at just sucking it up and deflecting.
Castiel: What I don't understand is...where is your hunger, Dean?
Dean: Huh?
Castiel: Well, slowly but surely, everyone in this town is falling prey to Famine, but so far, you seem unaffected.
Famine: That's one deep, dark nothing you got there, Dean. Can't fill it, can you? Not with food or drink. Not even with sex.
Dean: Oh, you're so full of crap.
Famine: Oh, you can smirk and joke and lie to your brother, lie to yourself, but not to me! I can see inside you, Dean. I can see how broken you are, how defeated. You can't win, and you know it. But you just keep fighting. Just... keep going through the motions. You're not hungry, Dean, because inside, you're already...dead. (5.14)
That is what Bobby and Sam are worried about with Dean. He has spent so many years dealing with the "bigger picture" that it did a real number on him.
Dean: I'm talking the way a person talks when they've had it. When they can't figure out why they used to think all this mattered.
Dean: What if the bus wants to go over the cliff?
Sam: You think the world wants to end?
Dean: I think that if we didn't take its belt and all its pens away each year that, yeah, the whole enchilada woulda offed itself already.
Bobby: Stop trying to wrestle with the big picture, son.
Reading between the lines is not difficult. We've seen Dean dancing with this question about death ever since he first met Reaper!Tessa. What if Dean wants to go over the cliff?
Dean to Tessa: I just...I wish I had gone with you for good. (4.15)
Quite a different tune from his original sense of drive.
Remember the guy who used to take satisfaction in the hunt? The first time we saw Dean hunting in the woods, which this episode called back to in several ways, we were given an insider's look at what motivated him, what gave him a reason to do what he does.
Sam: How do you do it? How does Dad do it?
Dean: Well for one, them. I mean, our family's so screwed to hell, maybe we can help some others. Makes things a little bit more bearable. And I'll tell you what else helps. Killing as many evil sons-of-bitches as I possibly can. (1.02)
Dean had a focus that helped him keep it together, to not only keep putting one foot in front of the other, but to find meaning in being a hunter. Helping people. Accomplishing some saves. Life has beaten him down to the point that he's lost sight of his former motivation.
Dean: Look at our lives. How many more hits can we take? ... We never catch a break. So why would we this time? (7.01)
And it would appear that the hits keep on coming. No more driving around in Baby (home, the one constant that was/is his), the Impala parked for his own greater good to stay below the radar. A brother that doesn't need saving -- Sam's a big boy who has to save himself from his own Satan-vision. Too many people lost, friends and family mother, father, Ellen, Jo, Pamela, Castiel, etc. Not everyone has a special "in" with Death, after all.
Well, what about Sam? The other Winchester in the picture. He's dealing with some horrendous losses too. So how is he coping? What gives him that motivation to overcome the horrorshow of his own memories and keep putting one foot in front of the other?
Hell!Sam: Why is this so important to you?
Sam: You know me, you know why. I'm not leaving my brother alone out there. (6.22)
Dean to Sam: You gotta believe me. You've got to make it stone number one and build on it. (7.02)
Dean IS Sam's motivation right now.
Bobby: You worry about him, all he does is worry about you. Who's left to live their own life here? The two of you. Aren't you full up just playing Snuffleupagus with the devil all the live long?
Sam: I don't know, Bobby. Seeing Lucifer is fine with me.
Bobby: Come again?
Sam: Look, I'm not saying it's fun. To be honest with you I kinda see it as the best case scenario. At least all my crazy is under one umbrella, you know? I kinda know what I'm dealing with. A lot of people have had worse.
He is holding on for Dean, because of Dean. He needs Dean to be okay just as much as Dean needs him to be okay, and he's not entirely sure how to help Dean, other than to be there for Dean in any way Dean will allow. Hmm, sounds familiar.
Ambition and apathy. Leviathan!Dick apparently knows a lot about motivational speaking, which translates to understanding plain old motivation.
There's a reason Dick has his rules.
Dick: I asked for complacency. Not complacency and a .03% margin of hyperadrenalized cannibalism... Have I ever mentioned how I feel about our little forays making the papers?
Dick: The golden rule is there is no such thing as monsters. Anything that stirs their little pots to the contrary is very bad for our plans.
Dick preaches cultivating complacency so as to not stir the wrong pot. It's ironic that he may have unintentionally poked the beehive by putting a bullet into Bobby Singer.
The Winchesters are not the only ones trying to stay off the radar. Hunter and hunted, wearing the same hats.
Bobby: You find your reasons to get back in the game. I don't care if it's love, or spite, or a $10 bet.
Make Dean believe that the world keeps trying to send itself to hell in a handbasket, he can justify staying in the mental slump he's stuck in.
Make him believe in monsters that need to be stopped again, he is given a new/old reason to get back to business.
Hallucination!Lucifer: Your world is whatever I want it to be, understand? (7.02)
The power of the mind. Find something to believe in, and you can make it real.
When Dean truly believes in something, he is an unstoppable force of nature. Not because he is the biggest, toughest, smartest, strongest whatever guy in the room. But because he just won't quit.
When Sam truly believes in something he is an unstoppable force of nature. Because he won't accept otherwise.
When Sam and Dean are both on the same page, believing as one in what is important, what needs to be done?
They save the world.
Right now Sam is going to have to believe enough for the both of them. He has the reason to hold on, to not be lost in his own mind: he is determined to not leave his brother alone in the world. Maybe it's not the healthiest way of dealing with his own issues, but it is keeping him upright and moving forward. That's a starting point. Focusing on a smaller picture that personally matters, gives meaning to each day. Saving people, hunting things. Save your brother, as you save each other. Dean doesn't realize he is helping save Sam just by being there, being Sam's reason. Literally.
The Winchesters are stripping back to basics; family is the most important thing. The question we are left tripping over is what happens when another piece of family gets taken away? Possibly, maybe.
Have I mentioned lately that cliffhangers are evil? Because they are. Either Bobby survives or he doesn't. I am not spoiled and don't know yet. Either way, judging by past Winchester history, that just may be the Leviathans' biggest mistake if it succeeds in lighting a fire under Dean's butt. Either Dean goes off the rails, or he pulls it together and steps up to meet the challenge. (Or, umm... both. Possibly simultaneously. What? He's a Winchester. That's totally possible.)