2 posts tagged “episode 22”

Still, I keep thinking about Supernatural's season finale and the most random theories keep popping up in my head. I've read lots of reviews of it, and they can be grouped into two sides, those that thought it flawless and those that thought it lacked in one or two aspects. My review was all maximum fangirling, so I thought a more "mature" review would be cool to do, plus, I really need to write out the theories to get them outta my head XD.

1. Let's begin with the recurrent recap song, Kansas' "Carry On my Wayward Son":

Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more

Once I rose above the noise and confusion
Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion
I was soaring ever higher
But I flew too high

Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man
Though my mind could think I still was a mad man
I hear the voices when I'm dreaming
I can hear them say

...

Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry (don't you cry no more).

The writers (i.e. Kripke XD) love that song, it's clear why, it fits perfectly with Supernatural's story/themes.

2. The convent: It's a funny allegory for me, because that's the place where Lucifer will be born again, so it has to be women of God who had to bleed to allow it to begin. There's no need to explain that, right?
Also, while Azazel is massacring the nuns the camera pans out the closed doors and focuses on the statue of an angel right there at the entrance, as if guarding it. It's beautiful, clear, literal foreshadowing.

3. Duality: there's so much to say about this, I could go on forever, but let's keep it focused on this supernatural episode shall we? The two paths, the two sides of the same coin, the two extremes that ultimately lead to a sole point, Dean and Sam.

Dean with the angels on his back, Sam with the demons on his back.
Two brothers, divided. They are at their weakest separated, the ancient "divide and conquer" theory is succesfully applied. Which is why I want them to come together again next season, to be a family again, united, strong, unbeatable.
In my mind, Sam is Ying (black, female, receptive, yielding, negative, and nurturing) while Dean is Yang (white, male, active, dominating, positive, and initiating), night and day, opposites that make up a greater whole, that unify duality. Ying and Yang are opposite but are rooted together, they transform each other and keep each other balanced.
Sam's role up until now has been one of reaction to actions, he's been doing what he can with what he has been given to reach his goals. Dean's role has been one of creation, he's been told he's the reason the apocalypse has began to unfold, he's been told he's the only one who can stop it (by killing Lucifer, like the Archangel Michael did, which begs the question: can't he do it himself again? where is he?).
Now, why is Dean's path the right one while Sam's is the wrong one? It's not really because the angels are supposed to be good and the demons bad (although you could take it at face value and run with it) not in supernatural at least.
My theory is that Dean's is the right one actually because he knows where he stands. He's aware. His eyes are slowly opened to everything (this begins with Bobby setting the record straight on dean's attitud towards his brother, and daddy winchester's actions) and he choses to react the right way, keeping family a priority over everything else.
Sam's is the wrong one, not because he's with the demons, but because even though he knows deep down he's wrong (all logical thought says so) he still choses to follow the demon's path. He became oblivious of his role. He's passed thinking and has come to react by mere impulse, like an animal, this goes hand in hand with his physical addiction to the demon blood, and that touch in the end, when he's killing lilith, of him only beign able to hear his own heart beat (with the exclusion of Dean's voice, of course) making him a poster child for contraction while Dean represents expansion.
Sam is found riding an orange mustang. See all the co-relations? a wild stallion, orange being the product of combining yellow (YED) and red, it's a color that has been said to increase the craving for food.
 
4. The angel room: or the ode to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, as is generally referred to. There's a definite difference in the two though, the 2001 room had a lit up floor and was bigger than the angel room in supernatural, where am I going with this? the fact that the 2001 room gave a sort of boundless feeling while the SPN room is almost claustrophobic. Both feature gold, baroque and neo-classical designs (although the 2001 room had more "modern" details here and there) which makes us think of what else but the Vatican. There's also a certain cheapness to the SPN room, which gives me the feeling of facade, of charade, of falsehood.
After the angels' revelation of their true intentions, we can see Bosch's depiction of Hell on the walls, cut in paintings here and there. I love that. Because one look at true art and you know what it represents, it's timeless. It's also ironic that some scholars think Bosch's work was meant to be doctrinal (I also don't like it when people call him surrealist-before-its-time, it's wrong in all aspects) and it's used in supernatural exactly that way (Dean doesn't strike me as an art connoisseur, but there's no doubt in him when the message is given). Beautiful.

5. The number 72: you would be surprised to learn, if you didn't know already, about the various meanings it has and all the places it comes up in.

The first obvious allusion, the year 1972. The second, Zachariah offers mundane things at first to Dean, beer, burgers, Ginger and Mary Ann (Mary and Magdalene much?), then 2 virgins and 70 sluts (72) in what seems to be a slightly different version of the 72 virgins that are promised to be given as reward in heaven in Islam.

6. Zachariah also has an attitude towards women that is very "classical" and another touch of character designing truly great on the writers part. That is: he's really demeaning to women. We all know it, women are nothing in religion. We are the "lesser" beings, we're there to be used. This also goes with supernatural, where the female characters are all side shows (some great, some suck, but neither is the focus point).

7. Theology: speaking of Zachariah, when he offers Dean his heavenly rewards, it's a rather key point. Because he acts as if he's God himself. How can an angel guarantee heaven? (it's all lies! XD) So it comes as no surprise that, when Dean asks "where is God in all this?" Zachariah says "God? god has left the building".
What does it all mean? according to the angels, there is no God, or at least, he has stopped caring about what happens. And since the angels and the demons have nothing better to do, they choose to entertain themselves with humans. It still doesn't answer the ancient questions where do we all come from? and why are we here?, so we can safely say that the angels and demons in supernatural are in the same position as the humans when it comes to believing in God.

Zachariah also shares that little bit of info, "this isn't the first time we've clean the slate", that implies the theory of a Multiverse (visually shown in the mirror multiplying reflection scene) as opposed to a Universe (read this very interesting bit of explaining for a better understanding of this).
I'll paraphrase the link above:
Scientists have come to the conclusion that many properties of the universe are "just right" for life and are convinced that the constraints of a life-allowing universe are very tight, that small changes would make the existence of intelligent life impossible, thus resolving in two main theories on why our universe is what it is:
a. Intelligent design + design-directed action, with our universe being designed and produced by an extremely intelligent designer/producer (God?) who clearly designed the universe so it would support life.
b. A universe able to support life is extremely improbable, but a theory of many universes (multiverse) changes the odds, sort of like many tests can produce one successful result.
But the existance of God himself can be questioned in both. Because if we take the anthropic principal which states that because humans exist, we will observe a universe consistent with our existence, the logic of it is valid and compatible with either the presence or absence of God.

Quite a bit existentialist for a tv show, right? 
 
8. Dean sums it all up: When he has almost all the facts presented to him, Dean sees clearly the answers, the path he needs to follow, he knows the only thing all human beings can do and that is to use their free will.
He chooses love, his family, Sammy. thus he asks for Castiel's help, which is later surprisingly given. Castiel's rebellion (contradicting the prophet's visions) proves that there's no such thing as destiny in supernatural, that the future cannot be predicted, that everything can change depending on your choices.
That "It's all lies you poor stupid sonofabitch!" XD XD

9. Lucifer's rising could go in various different ways, we'll see how the writers surprise us next season, I can't wait.

My review, don't read if you don't want to be spoiled.

My heart's still beating fast... my legs are shaking...

I wanted to scream OMG but... that's not appropriate.

We go back in time to 1972... a convent, where nuns wear make-up and where mass is being done by a priest with an attitude. Yes, he's a demon, azazel to be exact, and... you can figure out what happened to the nuns. Gruesome story short, it's the place where he will rise, in the future, all he needs is lilith and a very special child.

Cut to sammy, riding a orange-reddish car (how apropos) with ruby sticking to him like super glue. His sadness is right on the surface, I would say he's even tired of it all.

Dean's no better off, he tells bobby how he's through, done, with sam. Bobby... bless you, gives the following speech (yes, I need to write it out, it's that good):

Bobby: "You stupid stupid sonofabitch, well boo-hoo, I am so sorry your feelings are hurt, princess, are you under the impression that family's supposed to make you feel good? bake you an apple pie maybe? They're supposed to make you miserable, that's why they're family!"
 
Dean: "I told him you walk out that door you don't come back and he walked out anyway, that was his choice!"

Bobby: "You sound like a whiny brat... no... you sound like your dad, well lemme tell you something, your dad was a coward".

Dean (with a don't go there attitude): "My dad was a lot of things, but a coward?"

Bobby: "He'd rather push sam away than reach out to him, well that don't strike me as brave, you... are a better man than your daddy ever was, so you do both of us a favor, don't be him". 

 
How kick-ass is bobby? he finally said it. To dean's face. FINALLY.

And before we can get to hear what looks like dean agreeing... we find out he's been spirited into a rather tacky nuveaux rich room, lots of gold and what-not (vatican style anyone? XD) and castiel saying hello, it's almost time.

Sammy and ruby get to the baby-snatching demon right before she delivers another baby from the hospital.

Back in chez angel crib... ice-cold beer and burgers? they sure know dean... but it's also insulting, maybe I'm being too protective of him, but really... ah, see, they treat him like a monkey (dance monkey, dance!)... like chuckles did... and dean calls zachariah exactly that... read between the lines people, we now know where this is going.
(oh... and.. I cannot believe dean made a reference to a disney show...XD)

Sam proceeds to torture for information, which the demon gives after what seemed a little while *shrugs* I don't know, I guess time goes slower when it's one of the boys on the cutting table instead of a demon for me.

Dean calls sam and leaves the most loving message he's probably ever left on anyone's cell phone. I love him.

Meanwhile, ruby convinces sam to not kill the demon because... he still needs more blood, but the demon plays a last-ditch trick and brings out the conciousness of the possessed nurse back up. Oh-ho, it's gonna be really difficult for sammy to drink her blood now!
He goes online and digs up a newspaper article with the whole '72 priest thing... ruby downplays it... mmmmmm... one plus one sammy, one plus one... just add things up... but he won't, he never thinks things when ruby's around. Annoying.

LOL!

Dean realizes, he's actually trapped.

While sammy just looks at his blackberry... and we can now be SURE ruby's got an agenda of her own, and she's playing sammy like a puppet.

The cat's outta the bag as zachariah spills the beans (nice touch with the imagery -see screencap above- the angel multipling ad infinitum, sittin' around on his "smug fat" ass). Yes dean, they don't want to stop the apocalypse, they want it to happen. I could have told you that before XD. Zachariah tells dean that his real mission is killing satan and promises unimaginable rewards when their side wins, like peace and whatever... just, you know... fuck humanity, and sam, and everything else...

Later, cas shows up to say he's sorry it ended like this. Dean punches him (ha) and tells him:

Dean: "Destiny? don't give me that holy crap, destiny, God's plan, it's all a bunch of lies you poor stupid sonofabith! It's just a way for your bosses to keep me and keep you in line! You know what's real? people, families, that's real, and you're gonna watch them all burn?"

He tries to convince castiel to help him... but he just stands there... and dean tells his "we're done".

Sam hears the message, and it's NOT WHAT DEAN SAID, but a horrible horrible speech (done by za... that angel creep, probably) that puts the last nail in the coffin and pushes sammy to do the deed with the demon-possessed nurse.

Suddenly, Castiel appears!! Uwa! he takes dean with him to find sam and tells him they have to stop him because lilith IS the final seal, she dies, it all ends! where do they go? to pay a visit to our favorite prophet who's booking himself a sex-fest because he knows he's gotta live it like there's no tomorrow XD XD XD while sam is already at the convet ready for a show-down.
Don't-call-me-shirly Chuck says that's not supposed to happen, dean and cas are not supposed to be there while cas admits they're winging it and promises to hold the archangels off enough for dean to go stop sam.

My own captions read: cas: "don't touch me", chuck:" sorry". ROTFL.

Sam hears dean's voice calling him!!!!!!!!!!!

But it's not enough and he kills lilith. OH....no.
He realizes he's just been a puppet while ruby goes on in her own " I love Lucy" rambling and assures sam he'll get his reward from him when he rises. Get it? like za... the angel creep said to dean? get it? XD.
Ruby's all "I'm awesome!" until...

Rejoice ruby haters, the lying bitch is finally dead.

But, shoot, the shit hit the fan.

And that's all... until the next season!!!

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!