Meta: Supernatural "Big Secret" Theory
All, right, this is an utter dog's breakfast in terms of organization, but I'm posting it anyway.
I have had this theory developing since watching the episode "Home" and John's 'I have to know for sure' line. The very first inklings may have come from the Pilot episode.
I avoid spoilers like the plague, this is strictly theory based on observations and my subjective viewpoint. And no doubt other people have developed really similar theories. I haven't seen any, but I obviously haven't read everything because it'd like trying to keep up with an exploding fractal bomb, reading all the fan-produced stuff for Supernatural.
Contains Spoilers for everything aired to this date in North America.
Okay, here it is.
Summary:
The Demon is using the psychic kids as incubators to bring his children into the world. Like a cancer or a parasite.
Process:
The kids are originally perfectly human, just born psychic, telekinetic, or whatever. Born with that potential. The potential abilities develop faster and stronger under stress, and the incubation period is shortened when there is bad stress in the child's life, so the Demon seeks to make the kids as miserable as possible with the least amount of effort on his part.
At the age of six months, the Demon toasts the kid's primary caregiver (it probably has to be the mom, or someone with a uterus, no matter how egalitarian I'd prefer it to be) on the ceiling. The slash through the abdomen might even be significant, (given the whole Sigil of Azazel in the basement thing and subsequent Nephilim murmurings), or it might not. The blood of the victim doesn't need to drip on the kid, in Sam's vision in Salvation, Rosie's mom got toasted way of in the corner. During the (nebulous and non-specific) ritual, the beginnings of a demon are planted in the child (some kind of psychic/metaphysical thing, as the demon doesn't seem to touch the kids, it seems). I'm going to call this beginning a Demonseed, just for ease of reference. It could be a link to a pre-existing demon to be pulled through into earth's plane of existence, it could be a specialized form of portal, or it could be a brand new demon. Nebulous on that bit.
If, for whatever reason, the Demonseed fails to take hold, whether the Demon was interrupted, or some resistance to it in the baby, the baby is killed. (In Salvation after they interrupt the Demon, Rosie's crib is the first thing to go up in flames) This is probably so the child won't grow up to be a psychic that the Demon doesn't control. Which brings up Missouri. She's either got one of these Demonseed things, or is intergenerational (CD was sleeping when she was 6 months old) or her abilities are too weak for the CD to be bothered by. But she's a question for another day.
After the Demonseed is attached to the six month old, the remaining primary caregiver is deliberately traumatized by the Demon, using the mother's death to provide that trauma. There's a large fire, baby with Demonseed and possibly other family members survive. The traumatized remaining parent finds ways to cope with the loss and the bizarre death of their spouse while trying to pull their life together afterward. Whether the parent goes Max's father's route and blames the child directly and becomes abusive, or sinks into depression or psychosis, or becomes a substance abuser, or has the child put into the foster care system, or turns to a life dedicated to vengeance and drags his child around the country, the child leads a stressful early life. (External observation: Partly why I think this is because family is one of the major themes of the show.)
The Demon plants however many Demonseeds, sets the stresses in motion, then naps for 20 or so years while the remains of the human families raise the children, which is a real smart thing actually, since the Demon's kids get raised using human resources, the Demon cuts down on his overhead, so to speak. Assuming he's concerned about such things. By the time the Demon wakes back up, that batch's psi abilities are popping, and he seeds some new psi-latent babies.
The Demonseeds grow with the kids, maybe providing a nudge here or there when stress isn't high enough. They observe what the kid observes and report back to the big Demon when he returns. (I'm thinking there's a subconscious psychic link between them of some sort, possibly facilitated by the psi kids abilities.)
When the kid's psychic abilities become more fully developed, (i.e. Max) the Demonseed starts influencing the kid to go down darker paths. Whispering, or playing with emotions, and inducing them to murder. When the human personality of the child is fully broken, the Demonseed takes control, either directly, suppressing the human personality, or through some kind of personality integration. Because of the bond and having been raised in this plane, it would probably be immune to almost all exorcism rituals, Holy water, holy ground, and all that jazz.
There may or may not be an external demonic observer in some cases, my personal jury is still out on whether Max's stepmom was possessed or not. That one last look she had at the end of Nightmare seemed... oddly deliberate. If Max had killed or attempted to kill his stepmother, he would have finished cracking (especially if the stepmom he stabbed through the eye turns around, pulls the knife out of her black eye and says "that all you got, kid?" Heh.) and the Demonseed would have hatched and taken over. When the Demon tallies up his 'children' Dean's killed in Devil's Trap, he doesn't include Max's Demonseed because it hadn't fully hatched yet, primarily because I figure he's that kind of bastard.
I'm not sure whether Meg is a Demonseed child or not, but I don't think so, even though the Demon claims her as one of his kids. Meg did not appear to have psi abilities. She was possessed around the same time Jessica got toasted, though. Her brother demon was one though, probably from the generation prior to Sam's.
The Demonseed inside Sam is probably the source of the Demon's information on Pastor Jim and Caleb, unless there's another person with info on who John's closest allies are that's working for the Demon. (Missouri?)
How this affects "The Whisper":
I'm thinking John's last words to Dean were typically John and only contained as much info as he deemed necessary. Probably something along the lines of: "The Demon is using the psychic kids as incubators, something inside Sam is watching and reporting to the Demon. It's going to take him over and there's no way to stop it." Possibly something about "if other Hunters find out, they'll kill Sam," but Dean would probably figure that out. The nod John gives Dean doesn't look like a 'yes, it's true' nod, it's a "transfer of command" nod, even with the tears. Sort of a "There you go, it's all up to you now. Sorry." nod.
The effect of this on Dean, well...
Why Dean hit the Impala at the end of "Everybody Loves a Clown":
Every time Dean looks at his brother now, he knows there's something observing and reporting to the Demon, something that's going to take Sam over and there's nothing he can do about it. It's like Sam has a monster standing behind him, breathing down his neck and Dean can't say anything about it because the monster will attack if he does. Dean has no way to research this, going to other hunters would get Sam tagged as a threat to be hunted, doing any other form of research isn't possible at the end of ELaC. Sam is pushing at him to express his grief, to let down his personal walls. Dean wants Sam to back off not just because he is grieving for John in a different way than Sam, but because he wants Sam to withdraw and put up walls of his own, so Dean won't have to keep lying to his face.
So, to summarize and paraphrase:
-Sam is under attack and Dean can't even warn him about it. Dean can't talk to Sam about anything he doesn't want the Demon knowing about.
-Dean can't try to brainstorm about the problem with Sam, same reason above. He may feel he needs to keep Sam off-balance and distant to keep him from realizing there's something Dean isn't telling him, so aside from Dean's very Dean-like way of grieving through personal reticence, he may be being deliberately hurtful towards Sam, to get him to keep his distance.
-Dean is dealing with not only the death of his father, but with the fact that John knew this and never told him.
-Because of the distance he has to put between himself and Sam to keep from revealing anything to the demonseed in him, Dean has, in many regards, lost his brother as well as his father.
-Dean can't give up hope that he can save Sam, because Sam is all he has left. At the same time, sitting behind Sam's eyes is a spy for the Demon.
In short, he has a huge pile of stress, worry, pressure, and fear, and all his normal sources of support are not available to him. He's lost his dad and is now watching his brother being imperiled with no way of helping him. The last thing his father said to him was something that is now making him feel powerless and like he must hurt Sam emotionally to keep him safe, and to keep him from guessing the secret, because if Sam knows, the Demon will know. Dean has no support and no outlet. He's angry at John for not telling him this before, and for telling him this now and then dying on him, so he can't get any more info from him. (I'm betting John didn't write any of this down, Dean would've gone through the notes specifically for info on this, and wouldn't have turned the notes over to Ash if he wasn't sure there was nothing in there) He's sickened at having to hurt Sam. He's got no support, and no outlet and is very much alone, frustrated and powerless. So he beats the crap out of the trunk of Metallicar, because it was Dad's, and the trunk is where the secrets are kept.
That last paragraph didn't come out like I'd intended, but hopefully it makes sense.
So anyways, there it is, long, confusing and rambling. Please tell me how wrong I am and why. Logical and referenced reasons are vastly preferrable to personal attacks. :-)
Oh and PLEASE, NO SPOILERS FOR UNAIRED EPISODES!!!!!
I have had this theory developing since watching the episode "Home" and John's 'I have to know for sure' line. The very first inklings may have come from the Pilot episode.
I avoid spoilers like the plague, this is strictly theory based on observations and my subjective viewpoint. And no doubt other people have developed really similar theories. I haven't seen any, but I obviously haven't read everything because it'd like trying to keep up with an exploding fractal bomb, reading all the fan-produced stuff for Supernatural.
Contains Spoilers for everything aired to this date in North America.
Okay, here it is.
Summary:
The Demon is using the psychic kids as incubators to bring his children into the world. Like a cancer or a parasite.
Process:
The kids are originally perfectly human, just born psychic, telekinetic, or whatever. Born with that potential. The potential abilities develop faster and stronger under stress, and the incubation period is shortened when there is bad stress in the child's life, so the Demon seeks to make the kids as miserable as possible with the least amount of effort on his part.
At the age of six months, the Demon toasts the kid's primary caregiver (it probably has to be the mom, or someone with a uterus, no matter how egalitarian I'd prefer it to be) on the ceiling. The slash through the abdomen might even be significant, (given the whole Sigil of Azazel in the basement thing and subsequent Nephilim murmurings), or it might not. The blood of the victim doesn't need to drip on the kid, in Sam's vision in Salvation, Rosie's mom got toasted way of in the corner. During the (nebulous and non-specific) ritual, the beginnings of a demon are planted in the child (some kind of psychic/metaphysical thing, as the demon doesn't seem to touch the kids, it seems). I'm going to call this beginning a Demonseed, just for ease of reference. It could be a link to a pre-existing demon to be pulled through into earth's plane of existence, it could be a specialized form of portal, or it could be a brand new demon. Nebulous on that bit.
If, for whatever reason, the Demonseed fails to take hold, whether the Demon was interrupted, or some resistance to it in the baby, the baby is killed. (In Salvation after they interrupt the Demon, Rosie's crib is the first thing to go up in flames) This is probably so the child won't grow up to be a psychic that the Demon doesn't control. Which brings up Missouri. She's either got one of these Demonseed things, or is intergenerational (CD was sleeping when she was 6 months old) or her abilities are too weak for the CD to be bothered by. But she's a question for another day.
After the Demonseed is attached to the six month old, the remaining primary caregiver is deliberately traumatized by the Demon, using the mother's death to provide that trauma. There's a large fire, baby with Demonseed and possibly other family members survive. The traumatized remaining parent finds ways to cope with the loss and the bizarre death of their spouse while trying to pull their life together afterward. Whether the parent goes Max's father's route and blames the child directly and becomes abusive, or sinks into depression or psychosis, or becomes a substance abuser, or has the child put into the foster care system, or turns to a life dedicated to vengeance and drags his child around the country, the child leads a stressful early life. (External observation: Partly why I think this is because family is one of the major themes of the show.)
The Demon plants however many Demonseeds, sets the stresses in motion, then naps for 20 or so years while the remains of the human families raise the children, which is a real smart thing actually, since the Demon's kids get raised using human resources, the Demon cuts down on his overhead, so to speak. Assuming he's concerned about such things. By the time the Demon wakes back up, that batch's psi abilities are popping, and he seeds some new psi-latent babies.
The Demonseeds grow with the kids, maybe providing a nudge here or there when stress isn't high enough. They observe what the kid observes and report back to the big Demon when he returns. (I'm thinking there's a subconscious psychic link between them of some sort, possibly facilitated by the psi kids abilities.)
When the kid's psychic abilities become more fully developed, (i.e. Max) the Demonseed starts influencing the kid to go down darker paths. Whispering, or playing with emotions, and inducing them to murder. When the human personality of the child is fully broken, the Demonseed takes control, either directly, suppressing the human personality, or through some kind of personality integration. Because of the bond and having been raised in this plane, it would probably be immune to almost all exorcism rituals, Holy water, holy ground, and all that jazz.
There may or may not be an external demonic observer in some cases, my personal jury is still out on whether Max's stepmom was possessed or not. That one last look she had at the end of Nightmare seemed... oddly deliberate. If Max had killed or attempted to kill his stepmother, he would have finished cracking (especially if the stepmom he stabbed through the eye turns around, pulls the knife out of her black eye and says "that all you got, kid?" Heh.) and the Demonseed would have hatched and taken over. When the Demon tallies up his 'children' Dean's killed in Devil's Trap, he doesn't include Max's Demonseed because it hadn't fully hatched yet, primarily because I figure he's that kind of bastard.
I'm not sure whether Meg is a Demonseed child or not, but I don't think so, even though the Demon claims her as one of his kids. Meg did not appear to have psi abilities. She was possessed around the same time Jessica got toasted, though. Her brother demon was one though, probably from the generation prior to Sam's.
The Demonseed inside Sam is probably the source of the Demon's information on Pastor Jim and Caleb, unless there's another person with info on who John's closest allies are that's working for the Demon. (Missouri?)
How this affects "The Whisper":
I'm thinking John's last words to Dean were typically John and only contained as much info as he deemed necessary. Probably something along the lines of: "The Demon is using the psychic kids as incubators, something inside Sam is watching and reporting to the Demon. It's going to take him over and there's no way to stop it." Possibly something about "if other Hunters find out, they'll kill Sam," but Dean would probably figure that out. The nod John gives Dean doesn't look like a 'yes, it's true' nod, it's a "transfer of command" nod, even with the tears. Sort of a "There you go, it's all up to you now. Sorry." nod.
The effect of this on Dean, well...
Why Dean hit the Impala at the end of "Everybody Loves a Clown":
Every time Dean looks at his brother now, he knows there's something observing and reporting to the Demon, something that's going to take Sam over and there's nothing he can do about it. It's like Sam has a monster standing behind him, breathing down his neck and Dean can't say anything about it because the monster will attack if he does. Dean has no way to research this, going to other hunters would get Sam tagged as a threat to be hunted, doing any other form of research isn't possible at the end of ELaC. Sam is pushing at him to express his grief, to let down his personal walls. Dean wants Sam to back off not just because he is grieving for John in a different way than Sam, but because he wants Sam to withdraw and put up walls of his own, so Dean won't have to keep lying to his face.
So, to summarize and paraphrase:
-Sam is under attack and Dean can't even warn him about it. Dean can't talk to Sam about anything he doesn't want the Demon knowing about.
-Dean can't try to brainstorm about the problem with Sam, same reason above. He may feel he needs to keep Sam off-balance and distant to keep him from realizing there's something Dean isn't telling him, so aside from Dean's very Dean-like way of grieving through personal reticence, he may be being deliberately hurtful towards Sam, to get him to keep his distance.
-Dean is dealing with not only the death of his father, but with the fact that John knew this and never told him.
-Because of the distance he has to put between himself and Sam to keep from revealing anything to the demonseed in him, Dean has, in many regards, lost his brother as well as his father.
-Dean can't give up hope that he can save Sam, because Sam is all he has left. At the same time, sitting behind Sam's eyes is a spy for the Demon.
In short, he has a huge pile of stress, worry, pressure, and fear, and all his normal sources of support are not available to him. He's lost his dad and is now watching his brother being imperiled with no way of helping him. The last thing his father said to him was something that is now making him feel powerless and like he must hurt Sam emotionally to keep him safe, and to keep him from guessing the secret, because if Sam knows, the Demon will know. Dean has no support and no outlet. He's angry at John for not telling him this before, and for telling him this now and then dying on him, so he can't get any more info from him. (I'm betting John didn't write any of this down, Dean would've gone through the notes specifically for info on this, and wouldn't have turned the notes over to Ash if he wasn't sure there was nothing in there) He's sickened at having to hurt Sam. He's got no support, and no outlet and is very much alone, frustrated and powerless. So he beats the crap out of the trunk of Metallicar, because it was Dad's, and the trunk is where the secrets are kept.
That last paragraph didn't come out like I'd intended, but hopefully it makes sense.
So anyways, there it is, long, confusing and rambling. Please tell me how wrong I am and why. Logical and referenced reasons are vastly preferrable to personal attacks. :-)
Oh and PLEASE, NO SPOILERS FOR UNAIRED EPISODES!!!!!