SPN 8.02
SPN 8.02 What's Up, Tiger Mommy?
TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
-- William Blake, The Tiger
Ms. Tran. Ferocious Mamma Tiger protecting her cub.
Check.
Do not get between her and her child's well being. She will do whatever it takes to protect him.
Linda Tran: It's not my soul I'm worried about. It's my son's.
Sort of her downfall in the end, too much heart. Left her vulnerable to getting jumped by Crowley, and, well... getting ridden by pure evil -- not something you just bounce back from. I'm pretty sure the King of Hell made the possession as horrible as possible for her, considering he had already promised to defile her corpse in retaliation for that face slap.
New angel Samandiriel made an interesting comment about heart, how he thought Castiel's downfall was because he had too much heart.
Choices made from the heart can lead a person into an unbearable situation. Cue a number of instances of Winchester history. They've been in the Tran's shoes; the difference is they have been in them for a lot more than just the past year. So if they are appearing to handle it better, it is only because they have a disturbing amount of practice.
And then there is Dean. He is perhaps not handling things better. One could say he's showing a disturbing lack of heart right now. Maybe a little too much practice recently. But let's break it down a little more.
Ferocious Tiger acting like a pure force of nature right now. Is it good? Is it bad? I don't think there is a clear way to define it. But... it's Dean pared down to a pure predator, burning bright with purpose and focus.
Does his heart still beat? How badly has it been twisted up by his time in the forests of night?
I see flashes of the old Dean still in there. Kevin isn't so sure. Understandably so. He doesn't dare take the chance, not when it is his mother's potential well-being on the line. Family first, even possibly over the world. Something in common with the Winchesters.
It's a choice, regardless of how dangerous or costly such a choice may end up proving to be, that Dean tacitly understands. Even if it does mess with his plan.
Kevin: Dean. My mom's all alone. She's surrounded by demons. Can you really not understand why I want to make sure she's okay?
Dean: Son of a bitch. Fine! Let's go.
Kevin: You tried to kill her!
Sam: What's [Kevin's goodbye note] say?
Dean: That they bolted, that we shouldn't come looking, and since we lost the tablet Kevin figures we don't need him.
Kevin's perspective being understandable, it's only fair to point out Dean did warn Kevin about what could happen to his mother if Kevin went for her in the open. Turns out he was right. Ms. Tran was deeply traumatized and almost killed because Kevin didn't listen to him about her being bait to Crowley, and because Ms. Tran didn't let herself be placed in a demon-free safe house. Her safety was Dean's first plan. And second plan.
Dean: Okay, coming with us has conditions. Hex bags to stay off the bad guys' radar. And you're going to have to get inked up.
And then... things spun out of control, devolving from protection to self-sacrifice to victim.
I still see the Dean Winchester we know and love down in there. Just... buried under the weight of a lot of psychic scars at the moment.
Evidence of Dean's heart, seen in his sheer happiness at finding Castiel in Purgatory, his determined promise to not leave without Castiel, his understanding of Kevin and Ms. Tran's reasons for making the choice to put family loyalty over logical safety, and his admittance that he would have killed Possessed!Ms. Tran if he could have, but that it would have weighed on him.
Dean: It was Crowley, Sam. Doesn't matter what meat suit he's in, I should have knifed him. I mean, yeah, it would have sucked and I would have hated myself, but what's one more nightmare, right?
While chilling to hear Dean say that he would have killed the lovely Ms. Tran if it meant taking out Crowley, it was interesting to hear him be the only person to allude to the hypocrisy of everyone's attitudes about who it was okay to kill with the demon knife. It shouldn't matter what the meat suit is, right? Either it's for the best or it isn't. And apparently while not making a big song and dance about the body count, the victims do still matter to Dean. One more nightmare among too many others.
For all that his brother is making him nervous at times, Sam's knee-jerk belief in Dean is to express faith in him.
Family loyalty. The Trans are not the only ones with it. There is an interesting thread of loyalty being spun through the Purgatory storyline too among Dean, Benny and Castiel.
Benny: Why'd you bail on Dean?
Dean: Dude.
Benny: The way I hear it, you two hit Monsterland and Hot Wings here took off. I figure he owes you some backstory.
Castiel: I ran away... I am an angel in a land of abominations. There have been things hunting me from the moment we arrived.
Dean: Join the club!
Castiel: These are not just monsters, Dean, they are Leviathan! I have a price on my head and I have been trying to stay one step ahead of them - to keep them away from you. That's why I ran. Just, leave me. Please.
Dean: Let me bottom line it for you. I'm not leaving here without you. Understand?
Castiel: I understand.
We're left concerned about just how far loyalty went. Only until Plan A fell apart? Plan B.... Plan D?
Dean: Oh man, something is broken in you. You're making decisions that I would never make. I wouldn't sacrifice my friends.
2014!Dean: You're right. You wouldn't. It's one of the main reasons we're in this mess, actually. (5.04)
I think we're supposed to be wondering if Dean's got a few things in common with the future version of himself he met back in The End. That whole survivalist, soldier at war in an un-ending battle for far too long... it takes a toll.
Or did family maintain firm to the end, with an outside monkey wrench creating a no-win situation that left Dean with no options about saving Castiel? There is a big difference between sacrificing someone to further an agenda and simply failing to save them. Can't save everyone. That's just facts.
Crowley posits a darker interpretation of the Winchesters.
Crowley: I know we're not mates Kevin, but one word of advice. Run. Run far, and run fast. Because the Winchesters, they have a habit of using people up, and watching them die bloody.
What else do you expect from the Bad Guy, right? He's playing a classic game of perception and emotion to divide and conquer. It's true people have ended up dying bloody on their watch. But they have never deliberately set up someone to sacrifice. People they knew had volunteered to take the risk, it is also true. But that is an example of choices made by these other parties. We're all accountable for our own choices in the end.
Perception can be such a tricky issue. It is possible to take the same set of facts and come to two entirely different conclusions. For example:
Fact: Castiel ditched Dean in Purgatory, leaving him trying to survive unending attacks by monsters all alone.
Conclusion: A) Cas ditched Dean because he was crazy or just didn't care, or B) He left Dean to protect him from even more dangerous attacks by the worst monsters to inhabit that locale, alone and making a bait run from the only kind of monster shown to be capable of killing angels, Leviathans. It's the same facts, but the motives and intentions make all the difference about which conclusion ended up being the correct one. Foreshadowing or red herring? Hmm.
Let's also keep in mind one of the baddies this week: Plutus. God of Greed. But it wasn't a bid based on greed that interested him the most, it was the bid based on greatest sacrifice.
Plutus: It's not about the quantity, Chief. It's about the sacrifice. This little lady's soul is the most valuable thing she has. It's everything.
When you add that component to the mix, then Crowley's claim about how the Winchesters just use people up until they die bloody takes on a different complexion. People around the Winchesters make choices, perhaps are inspired or influenced to make choices leading to great sacrifice. But then, Sam and Dean have both made some of the greatest sacrifices -- including their own souls -- themselves.
So, tiger tiger burning bright, does he dare look to the mirror?
Sam: What's that kid thinking?
Dean: He thinks people I don't need anymore, they end up dead.
Sam: Dean, tha- that's not true. You know that.
Like Sam, I have faith in Dean. He's burning bright with a lot of nightmares on his mind, but this is Dean we're talking about. And a guy who chooses to stay with a friend when it would serve his personal safety better to go his separate way sounds like the same Dean Winchester who always puts family first. Loyalty over conventional wisdom. The mirror to the Trans is there, even if Dean can't see it right now.
Is it next week yet?
TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
-- William Blake, The Tiger
Ms. Tran. Ferocious Mamma Tiger protecting her cub.
Check.
Do not get between her and her child's well being. She will do whatever it takes to protect him.
Linda Tran: It's not my soul I'm worried about. It's my son's.
Sort of her downfall in the end, too much heart. Left her vulnerable to getting jumped by Crowley, and, well... getting ridden by pure evil -- not something you just bounce back from. I'm pretty sure the King of Hell made the possession as horrible as possible for her, considering he had already promised to defile her corpse in retaliation for that face slap.
New angel Samandiriel made an interesting comment about heart, how he thought Castiel's downfall was because he had too much heart.
Choices made from the heart can lead a person into an unbearable situation. Cue a number of instances of Winchester history. They've been in the Tran's shoes; the difference is they have been in them for a lot more than just the past year. So if they are appearing to handle it better, it is only because they have a disturbing amount of practice.
And then there is Dean. He is perhaps not handling things better. One could say he's showing a disturbing lack of heart right now. Maybe a little too much practice recently. But let's break it down a little more.
Ferocious Tiger acting like a pure force of nature right now. Is it good? Is it bad? I don't think there is a clear way to define it. But... it's Dean pared down to a pure predator, burning bright with purpose and focus.
Does his heart still beat? How badly has it been twisted up by his time in the forests of night?
I see flashes of the old Dean still in there. Kevin isn't so sure. Understandably so. He doesn't dare take the chance, not when it is his mother's potential well-being on the line. Family first, even possibly over the world. Something in common with the Winchesters.
It's a choice, regardless of how dangerous or costly such a choice may end up proving to be, that Dean tacitly understands. Even if it does mess with his plan.
Kevin: Dean. My mom's all alone. She's surrounded by demons. Can you really not understand why I want to make sure she's okay?
Dean: Son of a bitch. Fine! Let's go.
Kevin: You tried to kill her!
Sam: What's [Kevin's goodbye note] say?
Dean: That they bolted, that we shouldn't come looking, and since we lost the tablet Kevin figures we don't need him.
Kevin's perspective being understandable, it's only fair to point out Dean did warn Kevin about what could happen to his mother if Kevin went for her in the open. Turns out he was right. Ms. Tran was deeply traumatized and almost killed because Kevin didn't listen to him about her being bait to Crowley, and because Ms. Tran didn't let herself be placed in a demon-free safe house. Her safety was Dean's first plan. And second plan.
Dean: Okay, coming with us has conditions. Hex bags to stay off the bad guys' radar. And you're going to have to get inked up.
And then... things spun out of control, devolving from protection to self-sacrifice to victim.
I still see the Dean Winchester we know and love down in there. Just... buried under the weight of a lot of psychic scars at the moment.
Evidence of Dean's heart, seen in his sheer happiness at finding Castiel in Purgatory, his determined promise to not leave without Castiel, his understanding of Kevin and Ms. Tran's reasons for making the choice to put family loyalty over logical safety, and his admittance that he would have killed Possessed!Ms. Tran if he could have, but that it would have weighed on him.
Dean: It was Crowley, Sam. Doesn't matter what meat suit he's in, I should have knifed him. I mean, yeah, it would have sucked and I would have hated myself, but what's one more nightmare, right?
While chilling to hear Dean say that he would have killed the lovely Ms. Tran if it meant taking out Crowley, it was interesting to hear him be the only person to allude to the hypocrisy of everyone's attitudes about who it was okay to kill with the demon knife. It shouldn't matter what the meat suit is, right? Either it's for the best or it isn't. And apparently while not making a big song and dance about the body count, the victims do still matter to Dean. One more nightmare among too many others.
For all that his brother is making him nervous at times, Sam's knee-jerk belief in Dean is to express faith in him.
Family loyalty. The Trans are not the only ones with it. There is an interesting thread of loyalty being spun through the Purgatory storyline too among Dean, Benny and Castiel.
Benny: Why'd you bail on Dean?
Dean: Dude.
Benny: The way I hear it, you two hit Monsterland and Hot Wings here took off. I figure he owes you some backstory.
Castiel: I ran away... I am an angel in a land of abominations. There have been things hunting me from the moment we arrived.
Dean: Join the club!
Castiel: These are not just monsters, Dean, they are Leviathan! I have a price on my head and I have been trying to stay one step ahead of them - to keep them away from you. That's why I ran. Just, leave me. Please.
Dean: Let me bottom line it for you. I'm not leaving here without you. Understand?
Castiel: I understand.
We're left concerned about just how far loyalty went. Only until Plan A fell apart? Plan B.... Plan D?
Dean: Oh man, something is broken in you. You're making decisions that I would never make. I wouldn't sacrifice my friends.
2014!Dean: You're right. You wouldn't. It's one of the main reasons we're in this mess, actually. (5.04)
I think we're supposed to be wondering if Dean's got a few things in common with the future version of himself he met back in The End. That whole survivalist, soldier at war in an un-ending battle for far too long... it takes a toll.
Or did family maintain firm to the end, with an outside monkey wrench creating a no-win situation that left Dean with no options about saving Castiel? There is a big difference between sacrificing someone to further an agenda and simply failing to save them. Can't save everyone. That's just facts.
Crowley posits a darker interpretation of the Winchesters.
Crowley: I know we're not mates Kevin, but one word of advice. Run. Run far, and run fast. Because the Winchesters, they have a habit of using people up, and watching them die bloody.
What else do you expect from the Bad Guy, right? He's playing a classic game of perception and emotion to divide and conquer. It's true people have ended up dying bloody on their watch. But they have never deliberately set up someone to sacrifice. People they knew had volunteered to take the risk, it is also true. But that is an example of choices made by these other parties. We're all accountable for our own choices in the end.
Perception can be such a tricky issue. It is possible to take the same set of facts and come to two entirely different conclusions. For example:
Fact: Castiel ditched Dean in Purgatory, leaving him trying to survive unending attacks by monsters all alone.
Conclusion: A) Cas ditched Dean because he was crazy or just didn't care, or B) He left Dean to protect him from even more dangerous attacks by the worst monsters to inhabit that locale, alone and making a bait run from the only kind of monster shown to be capable of killing angels, Leviathans. It's the same facts, but the motives and intentions make all the difference about which conclusion ended up being the correct one. Foreshadowing or red herring? Hmm.
Let's also keep in mind one of the baddies this week: Plutus. God of Greed. But it wasn't a bid based on greed that interested him the most, it was the bid based on greatest sacrifice.
Plutus: It's not about the quantity, Chief. It's about the sacrifice. This little lady's soul is the most valuable thing she has. It's everything.
When you add that component to the mix, then Crowley's claim about how the Winchesters just use people up until they die bloody takes on a different complexion. People around the Winchesters make choices, perhaps are inspired or influenced to make choices leading to great sacrifice. But then, Sam and Dean have both made some of the greatest sacrifices -- including their own souls -- themselves.
So, tiger tiger burning bright, does he dare look to the mirror?
Sam: What's that kid thinking?
Dean: He thinks people I don't need anymore, they end up dead.
Sam: Dean, tha- that's not true. You know that.
Like Sam, I have faith in Dean. He's burning bright with a lot of nightmares on his mind, but this is Dean we're talking about. And a guy who chooses to stay with a friend when it would serve his personal safety better to go his separate way sounds like the same Dean Winchester who always puts family first. Loyalty over conventional wisdom. The mirror to the Trans is there, even if Dean can't see it right now.
Is it next week yet?