#like 'they are not Doing It but john's involvement in using dean as bait goes some horrifyingly intimate and boundary-challenged places'

[shinelikethunder]

jumping from "oh no there is SUCH specific depraved SPN fic i want to write based on SUCH specific onscreen dynamics" to "wait this was supposed to be porn when did it grow a casefic backstory, a thematically relevant monster of the week, and a works cited page" to "well THAT'S way too much fucking work, whew, what a relief, i was really worried for a second there that i'd actually write fic for SPN"

[charcubed]

Okay... committing the extreme sin of actually acknowledging discourse and salt, but fuck it, I would like to say this.

Bitching about how Dean and Cas didn’t get to kiss, especially in an industry where m/f couples are able to kiss after only 7 episodes: valid and understandable and correct, we live in a heteronormative society of double standards for media

Bitching that John and Mary “get to kiss already” when Dean and Cas didn’t: you are not seeing the forest because of the trees

The former point is part of what this show is fucking saying, precisely through the very effective, unsubtle, and repeated Destiel parallels. Part of the reason the show exists AT ALL is to convey that very concept.

Like... if you don’t get this show is deliberately commentating on and critiquing the ending of SPN, then you’re not understanding it!!! Or perhaps–whether or not you're watching it (🙄)–you're doggedly approaching the existence of this show with unfounded wariness in bad faith!!!

I get that people were wary when the show was announced, because I too was not immune to being concerned. I shitposted with the best of them. But now? We're seven episodes in. We've seen that this show is very loud and consistent with its themes, motifs, and veritable verbal bricks that Dean Winchester himself beautifully lobs at our heads to make sure there can be no confusion about some of the key takeaways and lessons. He's leading all of us to water and some of you are actively refusing to drink it.

This show isn't being shy about what it is. It takes a special kind of jaded to look at such content that’s speaking to you, vindicating you, and essentially say “this is probably mean and designed to hurt me for reasons I don’t know yet.” It's very evident to me that being angry at the Supernatural franchise is now a sport, and some people are trying to win it, when in reality that is simply loser behavior.

And my thing is that people will lob around words like bait or clowning or being wary, or whatever the fuck, and I'm like... what are people wary OF? Literally what! WHAT is the expectation here, whether good or bad? Some people are bitching as if they're afraid of getting burnt but like ??? how? What is the fear here!! There is none!!!

Are we afraid that John and Mary, as Dean and Cas parallels, are gonna die? Sorry, we know how that goes! Are we taking this as promise Dean and Cas will show up on screen together in episode 13? Well, whoever is implying that or believing that with sincerity is playing themselves because there is no earthly logical reason to expect that at this juncture.

If everyone could just pay attention to the text of a show on its own merit then maybe we’d have world peace. This show is promising nothing specific in any sense–other than surprises and music and Carlos being fabulously reliably bi–and therefore there is no "bait" (for the love of God) and there are no "hopes" to have that could then be dashed. It’s the most low stakes watch ever. Either we get pleasantly surprised by various things or WE KNOW THE TRAGIC END. Every week is just a fun little gift, to be taken on an episode-by-episode basis!

So it's the journey that matters, not the destination, and it also turns out that that journey has been designed to be filled with unexpected depths. They did NOT have to make this the ever-spinning wheel of Dean mirrors show with new reflections every episode! They did NOT have to provide gleeful parallels to Destiel to repeatedly emphasize how romantic Destiel was from start to finish throughout their story! THEY CHOSE TO DO THAT. And it’s like some people can't conceptualize all of these parallels and all of the mirroring can be on purpose, and to a purpose, while also... [checks notes] not promising explicit Destiel content. (Because why would you think that it is?)

It’s almost like the team involved with this especially Robbie Thompson have something to say, like Dean, and are saying it via the avenue available to them. This show is validating us around constraints and having fun along the way. But perhaps the prerequisite to understanding that–and not approaching any of this in bad faith–is knowing and acknowledging the fact that those constraints exist at all. In other words: if you're a person who still blames "the writers" for the fact that Dean and Cas did not kiss, for example, then the forest you are missing is the heteronormative society that media exists in and the censorship that limits it.

The m/f couples get to kiss when sometimes the m/m couples don't get to not because the writers are mean but often because the people who limit the writers are. This show is playing into that, taking John and Mary through some of Dean and Cas' greatest hits–and I suspect it will continue to do so after the kiss, obviously–in order to say If this is romance, then so is Destiel, in case you somehow missed Cas' confession or doubt the love is reciprocal. If John and Mary get to kiss, so should Dean and Cas. And that, amongst other reasons, is why it's so much fun.

You're not pointing out a fault in the show by clocking that. Dare I say you're fucking using the show the way it's meant to be used, and calling bullshit on SPN's ending the way it wants you–in every capacity–to call bullshit on it. Which is why Dean is narrating at all.

Plus, as Robbie Thompson helpfully says in this interview:

When we first got together in the writers room, it was obviously top of mind when you’re dealing with a show that’s a love story. At what point do you want to really show them take that leap? We always knew we were going to have a winter break or midseason finale of some kind, and it felt like from a dramatic standpoint, that was very quickly on the board as it felt like the right place to put it.

And then it was a question of, “Why this moment?” To your point, obviously, life-or-death moments have a tendency to exacerbate things… The fallout of that kiss is something that we’re going to play for the rest of this first season. You have those moments where you’re swept up in the moment, and it’s like, “OK, here we go.” And then it’s like, “Oh, wait, the world didn’t end. OK. Now what do we do?”

Or, to put it simply:

The romantic moment that happens while the characters are trapped in a room while a threat bangs against the door should not be positioned as the end of a love story. Because there's more story to tell.

Anyone who’s actively repeatedly bitter about this show's existence (whether they’re watching it or not) is choosing to give themselves a bad time at this point. There’s no legitimate reason at this stage to be bitter about what this show is doing. If you wanted the show to suck, then I regret to inform you that ship has sailed because it is indeed quite good. And perhaps... if you are determined to be cynical or bitter about it in the corners of the internet or on the posts where people are enjoying it... you could consider Not Doing That.

[gabaghoul-fandom-meme-queen]

Ok, some Winchesters theories coming up! So, we remember that the trailer for The Winchesters has a literal video of Cas' shadow in it. And in the latest Winchesters' episode we see this image from a previous episode of Supernatural. SO this could be a couple things... (1) The CW has limited resources and money and is lazy so they reuse videos and images (2) we are meant to find them and they mean something for the end of the show. I choose to believe the 2nd since I have put my clown shoes back on. So, running theory is; time travel is obviously happening again, angels are involved (hence the Cas video and literal Gabriel in the latest Winchesters episode). BUT WHYYYYYY Like, we know that Dean is telling us the story of his parents meeting. We can assume that this is him telling us post finale given the car having OG plates and the samulet hanging. Dean is not wearing his finale or heaven outfit though (good discourse on that here). So, we can assume this means something as well; he wears this outfit in 15x8 and 15x9 (The Trap - episodes that have Dean and Cas working through the some couply shit and traveling to Purgatory - so other planes). Ok, so back to S1E8 of The Winchesters, we know that Dean gave John the letter that effectively changed history/the story. So, Dean had to have traveled back in time to do this, likely by help of angels, post finale.

But, again, WHY What is Dean (and the angels - but likely just Cas) trying to change? What's the motive? If we make the assumptions that this is happening post finale (with our other assumptions made above) and we believe Jensen when he says it will stay within cannon, we can assume that this is not, technically, a prequal, but a continuation of the original. But, to play Lucifer's advocate with myself, how does that storyline get a second season? Potential theories:

It turns out that something is wrong in heaven or Jack and Cas cant keep the heaven light on and if heaven goes out the world does so they have to go back in time to fix shit?

Or, baddies from other worlds (akrida) are causing havoc in the world when they have not (did not in SPN timeline/cannon) so now (post finale timeline) they have to go back and fix it by Dean giving John the letter. And Sam is not involved because he is not in heaven yet and can go back to help out?

-- OR -- If we go with the evidence and the lazy version of typical time travel (and CW) story telling, we will assume that Dean, in heaven (or not) , is telling us the true story of how his parents met which was this exact story that is happening in The Winchesters. Like, Dean has traveled back in time before. That photo that Mary and John look at in S1E8 is from SPN S6E9. Maybe, Dean traveled back in time around that time to maybe stop the whole SPN timeline from happening to try to save more people, and they got their minds wiped given the Akrida are other wordly crazy monsters etc etc. Thats why the story of John and Mary meeting in The Winchesters is so similar but a little different than the SPN timeline. Maybe thats why there is differing, kind of, stories of thier meeting. And, you could plot right over that by saying, to make the appocolypse happen they wiped the minds, and made them fall in love (like SPN cannon).

But this does not explain the Cas barn scene in the trailer or why Dean is wearing a different outfit in the narration scene in S1E1. But, Lucifers Advocate, this can be explained away by them using the Cas scene to bait us and Jensen just liking that outfit lol. BUT Daneel is #1 heller and the twitter accounts like all the destiel stuff so, at least, they know that is marketable, SOOOOOO it has to happen, it just has to! ------ If you have made it this far, congratulations, you have officially fit into the clown car with me. I will live here, with my clown shoes on, and believe Cas is coming back to us, that him and Dean are having fun, gay, adventures in heaven

[postmodernmulticoloredcloak]

The Rooster Sunrise motel and the roots of the narrative at the sunset of the story. A masterclass in Dean characterization

If I didn’t care / more than words can say / if I didn’t care / would I feel this way? / If this isn’t love / then why do I thrill? / And what makes my head go round...

This song plays as Travis comes in to check at the Rooster Sunrise motel - late in the night, later than the motel technically allows checks in. Metaphorically, this episode happens later than it should. Everything happens later than it should. Dean defeats the monster too late, after it gets Travis dead. They’re running a case when they should actually be preparing for the ultimate showdown against God. Dean tells Sam the truth about Jack too late. The very episode is “out of place” in the season - I mean, purposely so - because it gives us a “old style” hunting case in a season where hunting has lost its original purpose in the narrative but has taken a different purpose, as a sort of caricature of itself, as we’ve discussed about before.

This episode is a last. Okay, we haven’t seen the next few yet, but this episode has a specific function, and it is to be the last traditional hunting case of the show. It’s about the past, and that’s why it can happen now that hunting can no longer exist, not really. This season, we have never had real hunting cases. Fake ones, weird ones, ones that just felt off -- obviously because the story is no longer working the way it did before. Chuck’s “hamster wheel” has been fully revealed, and the narrative can no longer function in the old way.

And this episode happens as... a sunset, actually. Or better, both sunrise and sunset because it shows us, in parallel, the beginning and the end. The first case Dean and Sam work together, and what is essentially the last, at least the last with the traditional formula - a monster of the week, a motel, a gross place, a civilian saved, some choking, some yeeting across a motel room, you know how it goes.

(The elephant in the room is the sun/sunrise imagery across the show, especially relevant after the latest episode brought back the Gas’n’Sip logo, of course, but let’s talk about something else here.)

There are many echoes in the episode. 2x11 Playthings, a case in a hotel that involved children. 11x16 Safe House, where a case was run both in the past, by Bobby and Rufus, and in the present, and involves a monster’s nest and visions. Of course 1x18 Something Wicked, where they defeat a monster that targeted kids after an attempt when they were kids had failed to get rid of the monster for good, and where we also get flashbacks of them as kids. And many other little references and callbacks. A pretty major one (*rubs hands together*) is 10x19 The Werther Project, where something supernatural causes hallucinations that make the victim kill themselves; Dean also almost stabbed himself back then. (Cuthbert Sinclair again... bless.) Oh, well, the pilot itself, where Dean and Sam comment that they make a good team. And then Carver-era secret and lies, of course.

And 14x13 Lebanon. (Yes it gets its own paragraph...) Dean smashing the stone in the ring, making the monster disappear, parallels straight to Sam smashing the pearl, making John disappear. The other monster of the episode is John, of course, who drops the kids in some motel alone while he gets “out of reach” when Dean tries to contact him on the phone (callback to season 1, when they kept trying to call John on the phone and he never answered, not even when Dean was dying or they were in their old house in Lawrence and terrified). John only appears as an invisible figure driving the car, symbolically driving their lives (all this “killing God and getting free” is nothing but a mirror to getting free from John’s influence, right). Callback to 9x07 Bad Boys, where we also see a younger Dean and we also deal with the weight of the lifestyle John placed on him, in an episode that features a literal ghost of a parent. (Heck, we even had Dean stealing food - in 9x07 he was caught by a policeman and brought to the boys’ house, now Caitlin jokes about arresting him.)

As 1x18 Something Wicked, we are presented with how growing up among monsters and hunting cases impacted Dean as a kid. Interestingly, Sam tries to reassure Dean in both episodes, telling him that he was just a kid and he shouldn’t be too hard on himself. In 1x18 he had ruined John’s hunt and put Sam in danger (of course the implication is that John put them in danger by using them as bait and expecting a child - addditionally unaware of what was going on - to watch after a younger child), now that he didn’t tell anyone about the nest because it was too horrifying to share that with other kids (of course, he’d also been a kid and shouldn’t have had to investigate a child-killing monster, so the implication is again that John shouldn’t have left them alone and unable to reach him in case of danger. It’s so telling that the episode has Dean discovering the bodies of dead kids while Sam is playing with another kid - although, of course, the game also turns terrifying soon).

So it’s an episode that has it all: the ghost of John Winchester, the way Dean’s parentified role impacts negatively his relationship with Sam (the episode establishes a connection between Dean shielding Sam from the horror of the monster’s nest and Dean essentially shielding Sam from the horror of the latest Jack news, it’s always about Dean feeling the weight of a responsibility to Sam because he’s Sam’s caretaker, even if he ostensibily mentions Billie’s plan and stuff as the reason of his silence), and of course the theme of FEAR.

I’ve been screaming this from rooftops pretty much since I’ve been here on tumblr - fear is the interpretative key to Dean’s character. Since season 1. Since the beginning. (You’re scared. It’s okay. I understand. See, when I was your age, I saw something real bad happen to my mom, and I was scared, too.) Many posts have been written about how anger is a secondary emotion, when the narrative ostensibly had Dean be “angry”. Dean has dealt with fear almost his entire life, and this episode basically works as an asterisk to the season. Hey, we’re having everyone comment on Dean’s anger! Including Dean himself! He says he doesn’t know why he has these outbursts! Well, we do know. Little reminder here now... he’s scared. And he’s scared because he cares, because he loves so much, and when you keep losing what you love you are scared, scared of losing more and more, stuck in a hamster wheel of losing and losing and losing.

In fact, if losing Jack will stop the hamster wheel, he’s fine with it, because as long as they’re stuck in the wheel they’ll lose Jack again anyway, they keep losing everything over and over, Jack and Cas and everyone. In this episode he mentions funerals of hunters, friends, how they couldn’t even attend all the funerals of people they were close to. There were so many. They’ve always been so surrounded by horror and fear and death. He just wants it to stop. (Of course the plan cannot work, just like the immersion therapy method didn’t work for Travis. Well, poor Travis’ idea of facing his fears to overcome his trauma worked very well on paper, just like Billie’s plan seems to be the best option on paper, but we still have a few episodes still to see...)

This episode is an exploration of the motives of Dean’s behavior, and it spells them out very clearly. John’s abuse and neglect, the forced parentified role he had to take towards Sam since a too-early age, the nightmarish horrors he had to see (while shielding Sam from, which reminds me of the infamous scene about Max’s childhood...), the neverending chain of losses with its baggage of fear.

Dean wants - needs - to defeat Chuck, just like Travis needed to face his fears and overcome his trauma. Because Chuck means hamster wheel. And the hamster wheel isn’t just a theoretical lack-of-free-will thing. It’s not just about a philosophical/theological concept. It’s about the very real cycle of horror and fear and loss that Dean has spent his entire life in. It’s about a pile of dead children, both a metaphor for his brutally ended childhood and a very concrete example of what has been haunting him for so long.

His apparently “okayness” with Billie’s plan is not out of a revenge thing or lack of forgiveness towards Jack (of course we can add millions of words about Dean’s relationship with Death). His okayness with killing Amara is... well, only partly about punishing her for, as he sees it, toying with him. His anger is because he feels so much. If I didn’t care / more than words can say / if I didn’t care / would I feel this way?

[pointlesstrashyexistence]

I know other people have said it in better words but I really don’t understand how that finale was good. Ok bear with me. Yes I’m a destiel shipper but Cas not being in the episode and the confession not being acknowledged in any way aren’t even in my top 5 reasons for what I hate about the finale. I don’t even know if they’d make it into my top 10.

We had a bunch of episodes before the extended break due to Covid happened where Sam kept having dreams of Chuck’s ideas for how Sam and Dean die, usually by one killing the other, in other universes. And then in the episode with Becky, she talks about how sad and hopeless the ending Chuck writes is and there is this positive light put on how in her own fanfics, Sam and Dean are often just at the bunker doing regular things like bonding while folding laundry. And in the end, Dean dies and Sam lives the rest of his life with this deep sense of unhappiness without any of the other hunters and friends he’s made in the last few years that could help him and provide him some kind of emotional support. He’s just kind of going through the motions before he dies it seems like. And Dean just dies and goes to heaven and basically waits for Sam to die and show up. And as someone who, while I’ve never attempted suicide, became very depressed from around middle school because of constantly being in a space where I was told my sexuality meant I was going to Hell and wondered if maybe the only way I could escape that deep unhappiness and loneliness I was feeling was in death? The idea that death is the only release and the only time where you can achieve true happiness is horrifying.

Dean has always had scenes, even episodes built around him wanting to live some kind of apple-pie life and believing it’s something he can never have. Dean has always tried to provide for Sam and make sure Sam has what he never could, including Sam having an apple pie life. Dean always believed he was going to die young and while on some level some of that had to do with him being a hunter, it also had to do with his own issues of self worth. Why couldn’t Dean realize and accept that after all the horror and bullshit he’s dealt with, he does want to grow old and live an apple pie life and be happy and be better? Why couldn’t Dean have some version of an apple pie life? Not even with Cas, just some version? I don’t think anyone would’ve like Dean having a blurry wife, but Dean just owning a bar that becomes the Roadhouse 2.0 where he gets to see the Wayward Sisters and AU Bobby and AU Charlie every few weeks? Why couldn’t Dean examine why he’s become an increasingly worse person and realize he needs help? That would’ve been nice.

Sam seems to want it at first only because he wants to be normal and then realizes that not only is he really good at hunting, but he actually enjoys it, maybe even more than Dean, and he steps into this leadership position later. He still wants a relationship (I will never forget you Eileen. You are an awesome character and its horrible that when very little deaf and hard of hearing representation exists and you were shown as not only a serious love interest but an amazing independent hunter who realizes her revenge won’t bring her happiness and continues to find her happiness after revenge only to be brushed aside and ignored). However, it seems like if he did it would’ve been way more integrated into his hunting life. Because having a family and hunting aren’t mutually exclusive. Bobby and Karen would’ve had children but couldn’t. Jo lived a happy loving childhood with Ellen and her father until John used her father as bait, and Ellen continued to love Jo and tried to get her to leave hunting for her safety. Jody takes care of 3 teenage girls who are either active hunters or want to be involved in some way. Why couldn’t Sam be a leader and in a relationship? Why couldn’t Sam have a wife and child like he wanted, except him having a family is not because he’s chasing a sense of normalcy but because he actually wants one?

These were things the two of them wanted but doubted they could have. In a world where a god is no longer controlling you, a conventionally attractive middle aged white man with access to large amounts of money and many issues they want to work through but haven’t been able to because of multiple apocalypses, what else do you have stopping you from pursuing the things you want other than yourself?

Now I know there are a lot of fans who didn’t like that the show centered less on Sam and Dean’s relationship. Yes, the show, at least in the first 5 seasons, was exclusively centered around Sam and Dean. The last 5 haven’t been though. Yes, the show went through many different directors in the 10 seasons after it was originally supposed to end and that is why. The last 5 seasons still have Sam and Dean’s family slowly extending, even when they seem to become shittier people. I’m not saying the last episode shouldn’t have focused on Sam and Dean’s relationship because that was the original centerpiece of the show and remained one of the key features. But why did it seem like they could only be happy when they were dead in heaven even when the two of them still have things they need to work out.

Even if the last episode wanted to exclusively focus on the two of them, why couldn’t we see them actually have a time where they’re alive and doing this? Supernatural starts as a show with two fucked up brothers and ends with those same brothers killing the god they realize has orchestrated almost every aspect of their and are now trying to learn what a life free of control means. Why couldn’t the last episode have them actually sit down and reflect on the people they’ve lost throughout their 15 years together? Why not have them discuss how horrible they’ve been to each other over those years, keeping secrets, gaslighting each other, intentionally doing things to harm each other, and deciding to end the cycle of trauma from both sides of their family by seeking help or maybe indefinitely separating themselves, realizing that they have the ability to bring out the best and worst in each other?

I would prefer much happier endings, but if we were continuing with the idea of kind of a return to the beginning, of bringing Supernatural back to its grassroots as a show about two brothers, why not have the show that started by their reunion end with their separation? It still pulls at the heartstrings, it still hits the notes it needs to, it’s hopeful, it focuses on Sam and Dean, and it ends with them recognizing that as much as they love each other, they have an unstable unhealthy relationship and without a god pulling the strings it is now up to them to decide if they want to leave this relationship to grow mentally and emotionally and seek out the help the other can’t provide. The last season was all about them trying to take control over their lives back, so show what happens when they actually have full control and deny the audience access to what they then do with the rest of their lives because they refuse to be seen as entertainment.

[pynkhues]

Love your analysis on Beth’s playing a role to control Dean—but now I’m curious about your thoughts on the ottoman haha

Oh my gosh, thank you for taking the bait and asking, haha. I’ve been thinking about the ottoman all week, because it felt like such a strange and very specific thing for the writers to bring up again in the context of Dean, Judith and Beth in 3.11 after Beth had made the joke about it to Rio in the bar back in 3.08. And hey! I get a lot of asks about writing and about critical creative theory, and how to develop both those skills, and I always give the advice to start by asking why.

So let’s ask why together, because let me tell you: if something in a story feels strange, and it’s specific, and especially if it’s repeated, it usually means the writers want you to notice. And if they want you to notice, that in turn means it’s either a) an important plot point (which, err, I don’t think the ottoman is, haha, unless somebody stashed some money in the thing), or b) it’s important symbolically (and sometimes both! The flashforwards on Breaking Bad in particular did that really well).

So yeah, I’ve been thinking a lot about the ottoman, and these two, seemingly flippant references to it, and ultimately it’s reminded me of a post I never actually wrote (classic Sophie, haha), about Beth and Judith in 2.09 and 3.02, and that kind of made a feedback loop in my head and - -

Look.

Basically I think it’s a symbolic rejection of Beth’s old life / Judith’s life; an important character beat for Beth, and an indicator that she’s more than what she was with Rio, and that she won’t ever be more than that with Dean, but that’s a lot. So.

Let’s break that down a bit.   

Mommy Dearest

While motherhood is a central theme of this show, I am perpetually fascinated by the fact that the only mother to the main characters we really know is Dean’s mother, Judith, something that does actually feel like a deliberate choice.

After all, I could write a whole fresh essay about how it seems that Beth, Annie and Ruby each function as mothers themselves in ways that reflect a multigenerational trauma, and, ergo, a damaged mother in their own childhoods – we learnt in 2.08 after all that Beth and Annie’s mother was bedridden with depression, if nothing else, and Ruby’s mother was widowed when Ruby was just a young teenager (to say nothing of the trauma Ruby must’ve faced herself losing her father at that age) – but actually…that’s as much as we do know about them.

Dean though.

Well. 

We actually know probably more about his family and his history than we do about any other character on the show. We know his parents were John and Judith. We know that his father created Boland Motors and that Dean inherited the business from him. We know that John cheated on Judith throughout his career, and that Judith briefly tried to go back to work herself as a shop girl before feeling forced back home.

We know that Judith sacrificed everything – her career, her autonomy, her body, her happiness – to give Dean the illusion of a perfect family. While Dean might not know all the details himself, he’s certainly picked some of the expectations of that up through his parents, because ultimately, he expects Beth to do the same. And she did! And still does, in many, many ways.

There are a lot of examples of this, but the biggest one, of course, is the arc across 2.07 through to 2.10, which culminates with Dean holding their children ransom at Judith’s house, blackballing Beth into caving, and then flat out not caring about her inner life at all in 2.10.

That entire arc hinges on a lot of things, but one of the most integral conversations within that is the one Beth and Judith have at Emma’s birthday party in 2.09.

A conversation that’s pretty sublimely paralleled in 3.02.

2.09 vs 3.02

Beth and Judith’s conversations at Emma’s birthday party in 2.09 and then in the Boland kitchen in 3.02 are in fact two scenes that are also in conversation with each other. They’re different, but they’re the same. They’re circling the same information, while offering new takes, bantering old jokes that pivot into new jabs. They’re great, and I know they’re nobody who watches this show’s favourite scenes, but I actually love both of them a lot, and I think they’re really important – not just for Beth as a character, but for the show’s themes overall.

The scene in 2.09 falls on the back of Dean having taken the kids, and Beth’s grief arc around that. She only gets the invite to Emma’s birthday party because Dean’s put her in a position where she has to ask for it, and within the first 20 seconds of Beth and Judith exchange while they’re cutting up Emma’s birthday cake, we get this absolute gem:

Beth: [Dean]’s a good dad.

Judith: So was John. Not much of a husband though.

Judith goes on to confirm  that John cheated (with enough women she “stopped counting”), just like she now knows Dean did, but that’s not the point, and it’s not the thrust of the conversation.

The throughline is that men might cheat, and you can leave them, but as a mother, your responsibility is to them. You have to sacrifice your own needs to give them the best life you can.

In both Ruby and Annie’s cases, these are moral sacrifices to create financial gains for those children. Ruby’s in a loving marriage and needs to pay for her daughter’s medication, so that’s all literal with her. For Annie, it’s not quite as literal, but explores a parallel morality by way of her empathy – she feels no moral guilt about robberies, but she feels moral guilt by way of Marion and Nancy, in order to provide for her son.

Beth’s not like them.

She enjoys crime. She empathises with others, but isn’t a bleeding heart like Annie.

All of Beth’s sacrifices are felt personally.

She dims her own light, her own passions, her personality, her needs, her ambitions, to fuel the light of Dean’s, or for their children.  

It’s a conversation she has again with Judith in 3.02.

Judith’s been helping out more since Beth went to work. It leads to a few confrontations across the episode, but the one between the two of them in the kitchen after dinner is pivotal. I could actually transcribe the whole conversation here, because it’s honestly awesome, revealing dialogue, but instead I’m going to break it down into three little blocks.

a) The first in that it tells us how much Dean diminishes and doesn’t think about his mother.

Beth apologises for the fight which Dean ignores, and Judith asks a simple question:

“Did Dean ever tell you that I worked?”

No, Beth replies, simply, effortlessly.

A telling thing for a couple who have been together for over 20 years.

b) It builds to Judith telling Beth about having Dean, and then –

Judith: Everyone’s fawning over this new baby boy, while I’m just…nothing. Empty. Flesh and hormones over ice.

Beth pours them both a drink.

Confides that she had post-partum depression too.

c) But that’s not what Judith is saying. Judith’s not empathising with Beth, she’s telling her to go home.

Beth: Your happiness was important too.

(beat)

Judith: How much does the card shop pay?

Beth: You shouldn’t have quit.

Judith: And you should be home for dinner if you don’t want the kids saying grace…what a lie, huh? That we can have it all.

This scene is sharp, and it’s designed as a narrative weapon against Beth, who is desperately trying to keep her family above water, and actually gives Beth the triple duty in terms of protective responsibilities.

She’s trying to provide for her children, of course, and trying to justify her own purpose outside of motherhood to her mother-in-law, while also concealing from Judith how much Dean has failed their family in every way.

Judith gave up everything for Dean, so what can Beth do except placate her?

The thing is, these two conversations have very, very different results. 

In 2.09, Judith’s conversation with Beth was a key part of Beth ultimately quitting both crime and Rio, and trying to revert back to the woman she was – the woman Judith would always be. 

3.02 had a very different outcome.

Beth didn’t quit.

She doubled down.

Not only that, it directly pivoted into a scene where Beth, Ruby and Annie were criming, fucked a part of it up, and Beth’s instant response is “What would Rio do?” trying him into that overall arc.

The Ottoman

Which brings us, finally, to the ottoman!

It’s an offhand joke in 3.08, right? Beth’s dressed up, and she and Rio are in one of their games of eternal bargaining after she robbed him and he replied by stealing literally everything she owned. She’s trying to earn it back, he says he has something for her, she jokes, “My ottoman?”

It’s not serious. She’s not serious, which already loads the term, but Rio’s response is equally light, equally dismantling.

No.

The thing he has for her is Boomer.

And sure, there’s a lot to unpack in that, but what’s important here is that Rio treated the ottoman as something as frivolous as Beth treated it. They were on the same page – in maybe one of the few moments they were all season.

He knew as well as she did that the ottoman wasn’t something she needed.

The scene in 3.11 is really different.

Beth’s literally dressed down, on the toilet, in the robe she wore when she broke up with Rio in 2.09. Dean barges in, tells her no one will give him money to buy the hot tub place, then instantly breaks into a diatribe about how his mother wants to give them his ottoman.

Beth: We don’t have a couch!

Dean: I told her that.

Beth: Good.

Dean: The ottoman will be here tomorrow.

[Beth sighs]

Dean: I know, I’m sorry.

[beat]

Dean: I just don’t want [Rio] involved again.

The scene serves the purpose of, once again, emasculating Dean – showing that he can’t get out from under his mother’s thumb in the same narrative beat that it tells us as an audience that Dean can’t wriggle out from beneath Rio’s either – at least not as long as he’s with Beth.

In turn, the ottoman as an object holds a lot of narrative weight.

It’s something Beth and Rio can joke about, and something that labours on Beth and Dean’s marriage.

On a deeper level, the ottoman is something that holds a purpose, yes, but needs other items to be complete.

On its own, an ottoman is a joke. With a couch, it’s a living room.

Beth wants the couch – she wants the career – she wants the functionality and purpose of it. She wants to build her home herself, not scrape around for leftovers, nor rely on superficial or frivolous function in the way that she did before she robbed Fine & Frugal.

Beth is a character bursting with purpose, utility, passion. She wants to build this new life, not accessorise it, and Rio knows it, and Dean can never offer it to her, and that matters to her, particularly as she tries to untangle her future from Judith’s.

What I’m getting at is that I think Beth made a very different decision in 3,02 than she did in 2.09. She decided she was going to do this. She was going to be less of an ornament in her own life, and it would take her away from her children but hopefully give her more function to provide for them, and notably for herself too, and I think the narrative symbol of the ottoman is that the domestic goddess / Judith image isn’t her anymore, at least not exclusively. It’s not what she needs, and Rio knows that, and can laugh with her as she makes a joke of it, while Dean knows it, but will never fully support or empower her in disentangling from it. 

[hyperfixateandchill]

aaand because I can’t stop thinking about it i’ve written down my ranking of post-finale deancas scenarios including a non-exhaustive list of pros and cons for each. read on at your own discretion.

1st place: Deancas open up the new Roadhouse. My personal favorite because, again, Dean’s canon dream. I think Dean would LOVE running his own bar and playing host and serving people food and drinks is basically his love language. Cas isn’t as into the bar vibe specifically but he enjoys seeing people come and go and getting to know the locals who come by and just being with Dean. They get to stay connected to the hunting world without being actual hunters which is probably the perfect win win situation for them.

Other Pros of the Bar scenario (i’ve thought about this a lot): Claire and Kaia come by increasingly often to visit until eventually Claire basically works part-time at the Roadhouse when she’s not off hunting and Dean starts only semi-ironically calling it the “family business.” Claire puts up pride flag stickers on the front door and Dean makes a thing of it at first but then warms up to the idea. People start catching on and now local queer people will come from several towns over to visit the bar because there aren’t exactly that many queer friendly spaces in their corner of Kansas. Then it’s pride month and Claire and Kaia secretly update the bar’s online info to explicitly draw in queer customers and on the evening of the nearest pride march the bar is PACKED with all the local gays and Cas has the pop music blaring and he will NOT let Dean change it but it’s ok because Dean’s made friends with a drag queen who’s a professional comedian and now they’re comparing calendars to see when she might be able to come do a set at the Roadhouse and basically their bar is now a gay bar. “LGBT friendly”, Dean insists, because 1. he’s not gay and 2. he still caters to the local straights and the hunters. but now hunters come in and end up sitting 2 stools away from a flamboyant!gay and some are slightly weirded out but most don’t care at all and all of them end up making some kind of comment about how they’d heard about Dean Winchester and his angel... guess it’s true huh? And Dean shoots them a cocky grin and says ‘yep’ but he still holds to the rule that pop music is only allowed on tuesdays and thursdays and maybe very late at night on the weekends when everybody’s drunk and dancing. The Roadhouse is a second home to Dean and it’s the perfect mix of middle american dive, hunter’s hangout and lgbt space, and that’s literally DEAN so it’s perfect and he gets to work with his family by his side and be a part of a community (or several) and he feels useful and happy.

Cons of the Bar scenario: Doesn’t work great with having a small child or hobbies. very long hours and unusual work schedule. would encourage Dean’s drinking habit. I.e. it might be more intense than some alternatives (unless the bar is more cafe/diner during the day and Claire/Kaia/whatever other youngins can mind the place on their own if deancas aren’t in and the bar is located quite close to their house to they can come and go).

Overall works pretty well for a more active/energetic take on deancas’s lives post-finale. 8/10

2nd place: Mix of mechanic!Dean and retired!deancas. Dean’s never had a proper job before or much of a social circle who aren’t hunters, so I find it hard to imagine Dean working at an autoshop and playing mr. normie with his coworkers. Same with Cas and a regular job.

What I can imagine, however, is Dean having his own small business where he fixes up old cars (for like, vintage car enthusiasts). It starts as a hobby but then he realizes people would pay him to do it so now it’s a business. Deancas obviously have a a house on a big plot of land near the woods and a lakeside, so there’s plenty of outdoor space for him to set up a small shop and most of his customers call ahead so he doesn’t have people just coming in anyway. The work is not quite enough to pay all the bills but again, Charlie’s magic credit card, so who cares. Cas gardens and beekeeps and occasionally sells the extras at the local farmer’s market. Dean cooks and fishes and uses Cas’s ingredients whenever possible. They spend their days on their own property, doing their hobbies on their own time and making enough money from them that they don’t feel useless and still have plenty of time left to get over-involved in Jack’s pta. It’s a very calm, contented life. the millennial hipster dream, fulfilled by two 40-some year old dads.

Pros: deancas getting to spend their days doing what they love, being ridiculously domestic and married (even if they’re not officially married), both being absolute malewives in their own ways and it’s disgustingly sweet.

Cons: this scenario doesn’t have quite as much excitement and opportunity for shenanigans as the bar scenario. Less connection to a community, more living like hermits. Dean might appreciate the more social atmosphere of a bar. Cas might be equally happy either way, but he’d probably like having Claire help them out at the bar so that’s a plus for him.

Overall a good scenario for a more placid semi-retired life. 7/10

3rd place: a bait and switch. Cas is the one who ends up still having something you could call a ‘job’, Dean is the househusband. It starts with deancas still helping saileen with HOL (hunters of letters) stuff but eventually Dean is very decided that he wants out now that things are in good hands. Cas agrees with him but still consults with the hol network since he’s got all that lore knowledge. Dean very occasionally helps with research/strategy for a hunt but that’s IT no more hunting for him, and so it ends up that Cas still comes by the bunker fairly often and works from home the rest of the time on research and translations etc and Dean’s 100% amateur chef-in-training and papa bear because now nobody can look down on him for being a housewife (or nobody he gives a shit about anyway) so he’s gone all in. and whenever he comes by the bunker these days is after he’s picked up Jack from school and he comes to join their family to cook them all dinner while they finish up the work.

Pros: love me a Dean who’s gotten over his hypermasculinity and is now comfortable with doing whatever he likes even if (sometimes specially if) that thing is considered stereotypically feminine. It’s his big fuck you to his dad and it’s the life mary had wanted when she was young and dean is mary and therefore he’s honoring her memory when he spends his days on a bright airy kitchen making lunch for his 4 year old and waiting for his ex-soldier husband he adores to come home and doing not one bit of hunting. except dean never had to lie about his past and cut ties with his hunter family to get this. which is why this time for him it works, when it didn’t for mary or sam. love that energy.

Cons: Dean is not in fact just a malewife and would probably still want some more action in his life. might feel kinda useless with Cas having a ‘thing’ to do when he doesn’t. Cas would be perfectly happy regardless though.

Overall heartwarming and sweet but not as realistic: 6/10

4th: Disheveled-magic-shop-owner!Cas (+ Sam and Dean). Just thought of this. Cas knows his shit about spell ingredients and magical objects and supernatural weapons, probably more than even Sam. And Cas gardens. And Cas most likely enjoys pinterest and mom blogs and finds out about etsy... So Cas may or may not start growing/hoarding specific goods he knows are useful in the hunting world. at first it’s just to help HOL out but eventually Dean realizes like... we could profit off of this? And Cas eye-rolls because he doesn’t care but then again he knows his shit so he sets up a poorly-designed website to sell hunting stuff. and maybe Sam goes in on it with him because Sam also knows his shit and it’s kind of cute because they work together and Dean probably does the mechanic/barkeep/househusband thing though he does help with making the special bullets and dropping off parcels at the post office and so on. And maybe eventually they open up a small magic shop where they sell their shit. And maybe the shop is next door to the Roadhouse and it’s all become ‘your one-stop shop for everything a hunter might need’ (and you know the gays like their new age shit too so it all works), and the bunker isn’t even far away either and all three business are interconnected, the ‘family business’ that AU John Winchester of Hunter Corp wished he’d created.

Pros: Cas gets to do a thing he’s knowledgeable and passionate about and Deancas get to leave hunting while staying adjacent to the community. Cas as a disheveled shopkeep who’s not particularly nice to customers but who provides them with insights and mysterious comments that make people certain he must be legit.

Cons: Cas using his knowledge of the supernatural to profit off of hunters sounds too capitalist and not very Cas-like. He would be the type to gladly give people stuff for free and methinks that Dean and Sam would feel that way too. Cas helping with HOL stuff is basically established in options 1-3 already and so is him gardening for potentially useful ingredients. He doesn’t need to sell this stuff in a shop.

Overall makes sense theoretically but doesn’t vibe well for me. 5/10

5th: full on retirees, doing basically the same things as no 2 except with maybe some more travelling and less caring about making money from any of it.

Pros: the “and they lived happily ever after” they deserve after all the shit they’ve been through.

Cons: boring. uneventful. Dean and Cas are still quite young and neither’s had a chance at something even resembling a normal life for more than a couple of months at a time. They should get more of a middle aged married life experience before moving on to full retirement.

Overall valid but less interesting: 4/10

6th: Cas gets a job at a local library or shop, Dean is either a mechanic or a househusband. To preface, if Cas were to get a job out there in the world, my favorite would be like a magic shop or a bookshop with *unique* books. But I find that unlikely unless Cas is running his own shop (see 4th place for that). So here we’re talking about a regular normie shop.

Pros: Cas has a job he likes and feels useful in? And he’s not completely tied down to Dean all the time (though not sure that counts as a pro). More of the ‘normal life’ vibes.

Cons: Cas working at a random bookstore or library or shop or whatever would be passably interesting but not as fulfilling or useful or fun as any of the other options.

Overall valid but not interesting or all that heartwarming. 2/10

6th: deancas don’t know any life outside of hunting so they keep on doing it, except now with lower stakes than before and they go on less actual hunts.

pros: umm... consistency? they keep working closely with saileen and the new hunters who start coming by/moving into the bunker.

cons: everything. Dean’s wanted out and he should get it. Cas literally died several times over and he should get to experience a human life with the man he loves and not just do more dangerous shit.

Overall a terrible idea. 1/10 (because 0/10 would be the Cas never comes back and Dean dies and goes to heaven scenario)

[poorreputation]

SPN 1X01 Pilot Retrospective Meta

Tag list for old episodes meta! (let me know if you wanna be tagged):

@emblue-sparks @metafest @verobatto-angelxhunter @evvvissticante @dea-stiel @sudo-apt-get-destiel @wildligia (tumbler’s not letting me tag you, sorry)

Pre re-watch notes/things to touch on:

Comparing the Woman in White to John, Sam and Mary/hindsight notes.

S1 motivations vs. S14/15 endgame.

Episode Notes:

Written by: Eric Kripke

Directed by: David Nutter

A long post, so I will put it behind the cut.

Lawrence, Kansas

22 years ago

We begin our tale with Mary bringing Dean into Sam's nursery to say goodnight. John enters the room, and in a nice bit of short-hand, he's wearing a USMC (United States Marine Corps) shirt, showing John was a soldier.

There's a shot of Mary and John in a picture. We already know they're married, so why is it here?

Mary thinks it's John in the nursery, only to find him asleep in the living room in front of the TV. (again, a connection to John's past, he's fallen asleep watching a war movie)

Something that'll become a continuity issue, later in the show: Mary's many years of experience being a Hunter, only to not recognize the flickering of lights as a sign of trouble.

Of course, Mary's wearing a white gown, (white is usually seen as a pure color/ of purity, but in this instance a connection to the Woman in White/see Jess later)

Mary's dead, and everyone involved is scarred for life.

The look on John's face, as we finish the Lawrence sequence, is that of a broken man, who's seen something that will eat away at his mind.

Stanford University Present Day (2005)

Okay, the first image we see of Jess is her in a nurse's costume, white with red trimming. Jess also has medium length curly blond hair. Guys, she looks like Mary, especially in Mary's death scene (white gown, covered in blood). 

We focus in on the picture of Mary and John for visual shorthand, confirming this is a grown-up Sam.

We establish Sam is "scary" smart, has aspirations of becoming a lawyer, and has a job interview on Monday.

Jess: "Knock 'em dead on Monday." laying it on thick, Kripke.

Sam: "What would I do without you?"

Jess: "Crash and burn."

*smooch*

Damn you, Kripke.

Night scene, and holy shit, why do Sam and Jess have so many plants? Why doesn't future Sam have plants in the bunker, you know, something low maintenance?

Dean, why the fuck can't you use the door? Or a phone?

From the get-go, Dean's cocky, suffers from eldest sibling syndrome, and is a shameless horn-dog.

Sam: "He's on a Miller time shift." See, when I first watched the pilot, years ago, I didn't realize this was Sam implying John was a drunk. These things would just fly over my head.

Sam wants to make a point of including Jess in the conversation, of being honest. And yet, the moment Dean says John is on a hunt and hasn't returned, that honesty goes right out the window. More on that later.

Sam and Dean's exposition dump in the hallway, a part of me feels it's an odd way to catch the audience up to speed, while the other part of me knows this is how families argue when they spend most of their time biting their tongues. Sam especially seems the type to mull over his thoughts, storing away comebacks for the perfect moment when they'll be most effective (like later in the episode). Also, it's been years since the brothers have seen each other (we're told later it's been at least 2 years since Dean bothered Sam), they're so icy towards one another.

Sam: "You think Mom would've wanted this for us?" we'd find this out later in S4, but, no. Funny enough, maybe if Mary shared her knowledge of Hunting, something more could've been done (foreshadowing).

Dean: "What're you gonna do? Just live some normal, apple pie life?" Dean, if you'd only taken your own advice, we could've avoided S6.

Sam, paraphrasing John: "If you're gonna go, stay gone." Well, that's only very emotionally manipulative.It does, however, remind me of the U.S. military’s views on those dishonorably discharged, and since John raised them as "warriors", it's not a stretch to think, in a time of crisis, John treated his sons as soldiers.

Dean: "I can't do this alone."

Sam: "Yes, you can."

Dean: "Yeah, well, I don't want to."

This exchange, this vulnerability from Dean, after his initial introduction of being a cocky asshole who hits on his brother's girlfriend, shows just how much of a facade Dean's attitude is. In the end, he's a kid scared of losing his Dad.

It's this vulnerability that convinces Sam to listen.

Come the fuck on, "I can never go home." after we establish Sam left John and Dean, left Hunting behind, and was told to never come back (home). KRIPKE. YOU'RE *not* SUBTLE.

2 years, Dean says, since they last talked. Either Sam entered college late, (20 rather than 18) or Sam and Dean kept in touch even after Sam and John's blow-out fight.

Again, Jess pries for more info, and Sam changes the subject. Nope, that’s not gonna bite him in the ass, at all.

Jericho, California

(insert biblical/wrestling reference here)

We meet monster fodder, I mean, some random dude, who tells his girlfriend Amy over the phone he can't see her that night. He slows down to a stop and picks up the Woman in White.

Anyway, another example of a young woman with curly, medium length hair in a white gown/dress. I mean, her house even looks a bit like John and Mary's old place.

We get a brief, blurry shot of the Woman in White and her kids. Sorry, but if you're familiar with the legend of her/La Llorona, it's easy to see where this is going.

Oh, and whatshisface is dead.

Chips and soda. Breakfast of champions.

Sam's being a real sassy bitch about how Dean and John get their funds. I get it, world-building for the audience, bit it shows just how passive aggressive Sam is in these early seasons; Dean's clearly playing moderator between Sam and an absent John.

Sam: "Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Metalica? It's the greatest hits of mullet rock." Sam, it's not Dean's fault you have poor taste. Shut your cakehole.

Sam: "Sammy's a chubby 12 year old." or, it's what a big brother says to his infant sibling to calm him down, oh wait.

Monster bait's name is Troy. Yeah, I don't care.

Dean sassing the officer and Sam stomping Dean's foot. Yep, they're brothers. This interaction is where their chemistry really starts to shine through.

Amy and her friend are peak mid-2000's goths/emos, good lord.

Dean's "I told you so" smart-ass look as the friend shares the rumors in town, he's such an older sibling.

They... they never tell Amy what happened to her asshole boyfriend, huh? Well. Sucks for Amy.

Researching on a public library computer, fucking hell. (nothing wrong with that, I’ve worked in a public library, but they’re doing super-secret Hunter’s stuff in such a public place)

Have it paused on a photo of Constance Welch, the Woman in White, and the article mentions her husband's exact line of work; associate manager who works the graveyard shift at Frontier auto salvage. Gives me shades of Bobby, who also lost his wife under tragic circumstances.

A mother leaves her child unattended, comes back to check on them, tragedy strikes. Or, so the story goes.

Dean confronts Sam about living a life of willful ignorance, and even asks if Jess knows the truth. Sam makes it clear she doesn't and he intends it to stay that way, as Dean sarcastically quips, "That's healthy".

Really, the more I think about it, the more S6 feels like the inverse of S1; Dean tries to live a normal life, Sam comes stomping in to rain on his parade. Lisa is kept largely in the dark about Dean's past, and gets hurt because of it.

Dean: "You can pretend all you want, Sammy, but sooner or later, you're gonna have to face up to who you are."

Sam: "And who's that?"

Dean: "One of us."

Sam: "No. I'm not like you. This is not going to be my life."

Sam thinks Dean's just talking about Hunting, but Dean means more than that, he means family. One of us, Dad and me, a Hunter and a Winchester.

Sam: "Mom's not coming back." and so on about how he doesn’t even remember Mary, doesn’t share John’s obsession. 

Dean: "No chick flick moments." Dean, dude, bro, you're the one who started this by breaking into Sam's place like a dramatic bitch, and then proceeded to give life/relationship advice. It's already a chick flick.

John's room being covered head-to-toe in case notes, only to come to the obvious conclusion it's the Woman in White. But, Sam said, because of the salt line, John was worried. Now, as far as I can remember, John was never a target of this spirit, so, I think he was paranoid about Yellow Eyes. After all, John had notes on devils/demons up, too, so maybe. I could be wrong.

There's something amusing about Sam and Dean's first duo Hunt, one without John, includes one of them getting arrested. Just, how rare that happens in the rest of the show, compared to how many laws they break daily.

Sam talks to Joseph Welch, who seems to wear the same clothes as Bobby. Also, Sam looks like a giant standing next to him.

Joseph lies to Sam's face about his and Constance's marriage, and it takes Sam a moment to work up the nerve to call him out on it. Or, it's Sam losing his temper. They're dealing with a murderous ghost, after all, and this guy wants to hide the truth.

Sam's done with lying witnesses, and now he's making fake calls to the cops. Gloves are OFF.

So, it's revealed John's purposefully leaving Sam and Dean clues, the journal, and the coordinates, but won't outright tell the truth.

Sam: "I'm not unfaithful. I've never been." See, Sam, that's only in the cheating department. You are, however, keeping Jess in the dark about dangerous stuff. Can any relationship with such big lies every be a faithful one?

Again, the imagery of the flickering lights. A standard in the show later for when a ghost's around, but considering all the visual parallels between the Woman in White and Mary, I think it's intentional.

That CGI of the ghosts vanishing was kinda shit, though. So is the sound of water swirling down a drain, I'm now just thinking of a toilet.

Dean: "I'll take you home." and there, in an episode where the ghost is afraid to go home and face the consequences of their actions, Sam too must go back to Jess.

Sam discovering Jess' body on the ceiling, as the room's engulfed in flames, never fails to give me chills. Hot damn.

Post Episode Notes:

While the pilot is a treasure trove of world building, plotting of character arcs, and chemistry between Jared and Jensen, it still doesn't make up for the fact it's bookended with 2 women getting fridged. Mary and Jess don't get to be characters, only fuel for man-pain, and argue with me all you want, but Mary's send-off in S14 is far superior to what she got in the pilot.

I remember seeing Kripke discuss how many drafts they went through while writing the pilot, and it feels like that at quite a few points. Like maybe the sheriff was to get more time, or Troy's father, who I believe is a cop, would've been more vital to the plot. And Amy, who'll spend who knows how many weeks and months putting up missing person posters for Troy.

I believe Kripke also said they'd considered killing John at the end, rather than Jess. I think, and this is pure speculation, the more they went into the lore for the Woman in White, the more they knew Jess had to die. I don't like it, wish they could've done it different, but it fits the story they wanted to tell.

The Woman in White, John, Mary and Sam, in hindsight

It's a retcon from S4, but if Mary was honest with John about her past as a Hunter, maybe they'd have a better chance with fighting Azazel. It's tragically paralleled to Sam not telling Jess about his own past, which may have prevented her death. And while you could say Heaven and Hell would still have their way, and shape Sam and Dean the way they want to, I'd like to think, given the chance, free will could prevail, And, look at how often keeping secrets is framed as one of the worst things the characters could do to each other?

Additionally, if John had been honest with Sam and Dean about what he wanted them to do, and what kind of danger they were really in, maybe Sam wouldn't have left Jess alone.

Thank you for reading this monstrosity of a meta, I hope you enjoyed/found it interesting!

[superwholock-marvel-images]

Through Time and Space 12

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

“Oh dear god.” You say looking at your phone.

“What?” Dean asks walking over to you.

“Sherlock found a mouse… he wants to put it in the microwave.” You answer shoving your phone back into your pocket. “Doctor mind if we stop at Baker Street?”

“Sure.” The Doctor replies.

The TARDIS lands outside Baker street, you and your siblings head inside. Katie stops to talk to Mrs. Hudson. It appears that your brothers are staying downstairs with Katie. “Sherlock, what are you doing?” You ask.

“Bored.” He sulkily mutters.

“Again?” Sherlock nods. “Mouse, please.” Sherlock sighs and walks over to where he stashed the mouse and hands it to you. Thankfully it’s still alive. You sigh and open a window and put the mouse in a nearby flower pot. “I can understand why you said Mycroft threatened you with knighthood.” You say breaking the awkward silence between you and your flatmate.

“What do you mean?” Sherlock asks.

“Do you really want to know?”

“A little bit.” You rub the back of your neck. You then explain to Sherlock that the most recent adventure with the Doctor was in Queen Victoria’s time, you also explain that the queen gave everyone nobility… then promptly banished you. Sherlock snickers. “Dame Y/N of the Impala… I’m not letting that slide anytime soon.”

“Why do I tell you anything?” You ask in a teasing manner. Sherlock presses his lips together for a moment.

“I haven’t the foggiest.” Your flatmate replies, causing you to erupt in laughter. It feels good to be back at Baker Street.

🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝

“That was tedious.” Sherlock says holding a harpoon and he’s also covered in blood, you arch an eyebrow wondering why you didn’t notice him leaving the flat with a harpoon.

“You went on the tube like that?” John asks arching an eyebrow.

“None of the cabs would take me.”

“I found us a case, just do you mind cleaning up first?” You ask in response. Sherlock nods and leaves the room. Once changed Sherlock starts rummaging through his things looking for his emergency stash of cigarettes instead of looking at the case. You sigh and move your computer to the side and stand up and walk to your room. It takes about five minutes to find what you’re looking for. “Here Sherlock, these will settle the craving.” You say handing your flatmate the box of nicotine patches.

“Y/N, you’re a miracle worker.” Sherlock says leaning down slightly and giving you a quick peck on the cheek.

“Thought we agreed with cold turkey.” John says.

“John, I gave him nicotine patches, not cigarettes.” You point out.

Sherlock finds this case about a glowing escaped rabbit, he gets all excited about it. “This is brilliant! Phone Lestrade.”

“And tell him what?” John asks.

“That there’s an escaped rabbit.”

“You got to be joking.”

“It’s either the rabbit or Cluedo.”

“We are never playing that again!”

“Do I even want to know what happened when you two played Cluedo? Because that was a rather quick hell no John.” You point out when Sherlock mentions the board game.

“Sherlock said the victim did it. Which isn’t in the rules…” John counters.

“How long did that argument go on?” Your flatmates don’t answer because the doorbell rings.

“Single ring.” John points out.

“Maximum pressure just under the half second.” Sherlock adds in.

“Can’t be Lestrade he usually walks right in.” You pipe up. You and your flatmates look at each other.

“Client.” The three of you say in unison.

Not long afterward a man is sitting in John’s chair, causing John to sit in your seat, so you have to sit on one from the dining room. You’re literally bored out of your mind at the moment. There’s a documentary on at the moment.

“I was just a kid. It-it was on the moor.” The client says breaking the silence between everyone “It was dark, but I know what I saw. I know what killed my father.” Sherlock asks what happened and the client describes something that reminds you of a hellhound.

You walk over to your bag and grab your dad’s journal and thumb through it looking for his notes on hellhounds.

You and your flatmates create a bet of ten quid… John says wolf, Sherlock says genetic experiment, and you say hellhound.

Sherlock deduces the fact that the client is a smoker and he is in dire need of a cigarette. That last part you weren’t sure if Sherlock was implying he needed a cigarette or if he was just deducing things. When the client says it was a giant hound- Sherlock instantly takes the case.

“I’ll go grab my siblings.” You say as you head down the stairs. “Hey guys, we have a hunt!”

“Already?” Sam asks in response.

“Oh yeah, I’m pretty sure its a hellhound.” You continue down the stairs and walk over to your siblings.

“Pretty sure?” Dean asks mockingly.

“I admit John, Sherlock and I have a bet going on at the moment about this case. I’m either going to lose five quid or gain ten quid.” You say with a shrug. “Anyways John says it’s a wolf; Sherlock says genital experiment, and I say hellhound.”

“How does that involve us?” Sam asks.

“By all means stay behind, if you want to help Sherlock find a missing rabbit.”

“You’re joking about the rabbit right?”

“Nope.” You state. “Sherlock found a message on his website, from a little girl, asking him to help find her pet rabbit.” 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 You, John, and Sherlock share a cab while your siblings share a cab behind you guys. Riding in the back of a jeep with Sherlock driving is an adventure in of itself. What was even more surprising is the fact this jeep can comfortably seat six people.

Sherlock cracks a dumb joke. “Would you stop doing that?” You ask with a chuckle.

“Doing what?” Your flatmate replies looking at you with a lopsided smirk.

“Saying things that make me want to kiss you…”

“Why is that stopping you now? I mean you kissed both of us before.” John comments.

“Yeah well-”

“Not going to happen.” Dean interrupts. “Nobody is kissing anyone, especially Y/N.”

“Overprotective older siblings in the backseat.” You say throwing Dean a bitch face.

Sherlock stops just outside of Baskerville, John marks all the locations on the map. Sherlock points to an area just in front of you. “What’s that?” He asks.

“Minefield?” John asks in response as he puts down his binoculars. “Technically Baskerville is an army base, so I guess they’ve always been keen to keep people out.”

“This is going to be fun.” You sarcastically comment. Once inside the town, you notice all the tourist traps for the hound of Baskerville. “What in the world?” You mutter.

🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 “You know I was drinking that right?” You say with a laugh when Sherlock snags your drink. Sherlock cracks a smile. The two of you start talking to this man who claimed to see the hound.

“I called Henry…” John says walking over to the two of you.

“Bet’s off, John. Sorry.” Sherlock says.

“What?” You, John and the person that you and Sherlock was talking to are confused.

“Oh, I bet John and Y/N here fifty quid that you couldn’t prove you’d seen the hound.” John then picks up where Sherlock was going with this. You do as well.

“Yeah, the guys in the pub said you could.” John pipes up. The guy in front of you cracks a smile and points to Sherlock.

“Well, you’re gonna lose your money, mate.” He says.

“Yeah?” Sherlock questions.

“Yeah. I’ve seen it. Only about a month ago, up at the Hollow. It was foggy, mind – couldn’t make much out.” The man then pulls out a picture.

The four of you talk for about ten minutes, then he takes his leave when your siblings walk over to you and your flatmates.

“What’s with that look (nickname)?” Dean asks. You hand him the picture.

“I still say hellhound.” You say fishing out your dad’s journal from your bag. You flip it open to the page you bookmarked, you then set the journal down.

“Oh so that’s where dad’s journal got to, Y/N had it.” Katie comments.

“No one has asked for it back.” You reply. “Anyways, you got to admit this is really similar to a hellhound.”

“Aren’t hellhounds normally invisible though?” You shrug not knowing the answer to that.

“I’m just saying we can’t rule hellhound out just yet.” 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 Sherlock and John have gone off somewhere, you chose to stay behind to figure things out. The only issue, you can’t find your psychic paper anywhere.

“Goddammit Sherlock!” You mutter you pull out your laptop to do the research instead. Your phone goes off, it’s from John. They’re coming to get you for some help on this case. John also admits that you were right about it being a hellhound.

You: let me grab some gear and I’ll meet you and Sherlock outside. John: that works… what do you mean by gear? You: weapons and shit. John: oh.

You shove your phone back into your pocket and grab your weapons bag. “Where are you going?” Katie asks walking into the room.

“John and Sherlock need some help. I’ll be back, hopefully.” You answer. Katie grabs your arm as you start to leave causing you to stop in your tracks.

“(Nickname), you can’t take this thing on alone.”

“I won’t be alone though.”

“Not what I meant. Let me come with you… you’re going to need help if it is a hellhound, and your friends are good people, but they’re not hunters.”

“Katie…”

“No, I’m not letting my kid go hunting for a hellhound by herself.” You eventually fold and say Katie could come with.

Sherlock uses someone as bait, which is very unlike him.

“Sherlock… what the hell is wrong with you?” You ask when you run out of ammo. You tuck your gun into the waistband of your jeans as you’re talking.

“What do you mean?”

“Christo.” You say glaring at the consulting detective. Your ‘friend’ flinches. “I thought so. The real Sherlock Holmes wouldn’t deliberately put someone’s life in danger.” Sherlock’s eyes go black and he sneers.

“What are you going to do?” Without any hesitation, you tackle the detective to the ground. Since you don’t know how to draw a trap, you have to somehow pin Sherlock against something. Maybe it was a good idea for Katie to tag along after all…

“Katie, I need you!” You yell over your shoulder. Your sister comes running. “Sherlock is possessed!” You don’t have anything else on that subject because Katie takes the bull by the horns and starts exorcising Sherlock. You manage to pin the consulting detective against a tree as Katie finishes the exorcism, sending the demon back to hell.

“What happened just now?” Sherlock asks when he is back to his normal self. You’re honestly surprised that he wasn’t rendered unconscious.

“We got into a fight.” You answer helping your friend to his feet. “You also got possessed by a demon.”

“How long was I possessed?” You shrug.

“I know it was after you snagged my drink when we were talking to the witness… I laced my drink with holy water, and you didn’t react to it.” Sherlock simply nods in response. “Going to ask John to make sure that I didn’t give you a concussion.”

You, your sister and Sherlock head over to John.

“What happened to you two?” John asks when he sees the dirt and leaves on yours and Sherlock’s clothes. He also notices the slight bruising on both of your faces.

“A demon possessed Sherlock which resulted in me tackling him to the ground, it quickly turned into a full-on brawl. This is the end result.” You explain.

“I’ll patch you two up at the inn.”

“When you’re patching Sherlock up, can you make sure that he doesn’t have a concussion, he hit his head on a tree.” 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 “What were you two doing?!” Dean asks when you and Katie enter the inn. “One minute you’re here the next minute your gone.”

“Dean relax. We’re fine.” You reply. Dean notices how banged up you are and walks over to you.

“This says otherwise.” Your brother comments, gently rubbing the bruise that is forming on your cheekbone with his thumb. “What happened?”

“Okay I admit, Sherlock and I got a bit banged up… but that was kind of called for.”

“You wouldn’t have gotten so banged up if you drew a trap.” Katie points out.

“Someone was going to get killed, so I didn’t have time to draw a trap. Also, you’re forgetting I had to tackle Sherlock to stop him- do you think a demon is going to willingly walk into a demon’s trap?”

“You have a point.” Your sister mutters.

“Wait… rewind what happened?” Sam asks. You and Katie then have to tell Sam and Dean all that happened within the last hour.

The next day before you, John, and Sherlock leave, Sam tells you to be careful and come back alive.

“I will.” You promise. You then head outside where Sherlock is waiting, John isn’t outside yet.  A reckless thought pops into your head while waiting for the retired army doctor.

“Y/N, what is going on in that head of yours?” Sherlock asks when he notices you’re kind of grinning like an idiot. 

“A stupidly reckless idea.” You reply.

“Which is?” You grab the consulting detective by the collar of his coat and press your lips against his for about two seconds before releasing him.

“Mainly that.” You say in a singsong voice. Ten seconds later John walks outside.

“You two ready?” He asks.

“Yeah, sure.” Sherlock comments, he sounds like he is in a daze. You tell John that you think you broke Sherlock Holmes by kissing him on the lips.

“That would do it.”John comments with a laugh. 

🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝

The three of you split up. John one way, Sherlock the other, and you go a different way. After a few hours, you find John in the cemetery looking at a war memorial. “John?” You ask as you enter the graveyard.

“Hey Y/N.” John says.

“Is something wrong?”

“What makes you ask?”

“You’re standing in the middle of a cemetery looking at a war memorial.” John stays quiet. You gently place a hand on the retired army doctor’s shoulder. John sadly smiles at you as Sherlock walks into the cemetery. He also subtly passes you the five quid he owes you for winning the bet the three of you made before leaving for Baskerville.

“No-no-no, it was more than that, John. It was doubt. I felt doubt. I’ve always been able to trust my senses, the evidence of my own eyes, until last night.” Sherlock explains to John when John tries to explain to Sherlock that he felt fear. “I also felt trapped in my own head.”

“It’s hard to believe some of the things you see Sherlock.” You explain. “I’ve been hunting the supernatural since I was a kid, but I still get surprised and I don’t want to believe what I see.” Sherlock reluctantly nods. The three of you head back to town where Lestrade is waiting for you, Sherlock isn’t amused to see Scotland Yard. John on the other hand is.

“Greg!” John says as Lestrade removes his sunglasses.

“Hullo John and Y/N.” Lestrade replies. “I heard you were in the area. What are you three up to? Does it involve this hound of hell thing that’s on the telly?”

“Hound of hell that’s one way how to put it. Normally it’s hellhound or a demon dog.” You say sitting down next to him. “I know my siblings and I are after it- I’m not sure about Sherlock and John though.”

“Wait, you have siblings?” Out of the corner of eye, you see your bothers basically having a catfight over something. You turn on your bar stool to face them. You’re about to get out of your seat to break them apart but Katie gets there first.

“Sometimes I wish I didn’t.” You comment.

“I’m waiting for an explanation, Inspector.” Sherlock says, interrupting your conversation with the DI. “Why are you here?”

“I’ve told you: I’m on holiday.” Lestrade replies.

“You’re brown as a nut. You’re clearly just back from your ‘holidays’.”

“Yeah, well I fancied another one.”

“Oh, this is Mycroft, isn’t it?” Sherlock spits out his brother’s name like it tastes disgusting.

“No, look…” Lestrade tries to explain but Sherlock cuts him off.

“Of course it is! One mention of Baskerville and he sends down my handler to… to spy on me incognito. Is that why you’re calling yourself Greg?”

“That’s his name.” John calmly states.

“It is?” The consulting detective asks sounding confused and mildly surprised.

“Yes- if you’d ever bothered to find out. Look, I’m not your handler…” The chief inspector retorts as he turns away from Sherlock to pick up his drink. “And I don’t just do what your brother tells me.” You don’t hear the rest of the conversation because get out of your seat and walk over to your siblings

“Who was the person you were talking with?” Katie asks. You forget, no one in your family has done a case with you, John, and Sherlock before now- so they don’t know who Lestrade is.

“That’s Lestrade.” You reply. “He’s pretty much the only person from Scotland Yard that Sherlock will work with.”

“What do you mean?”

“A lot of people at Scotland Yard calls Sherlock a freak.”

🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝

It turns out that most of the legends about the hound of Baskerville was just a prank. However, there is that small detail of people getting ripped to shreds by a large black dog with red eyes. You, your siblings, and John find yourselves in a warehouse with a hellhound, and Sherlock is nowhere to be found. You create a salt ring around John.

“Stay in the salt ring. It will keep you safe.” You tell your friend.

“What about you?” He asks, looking worried.

“This isn’t my first rodeo.” With that, you run off looking for your siblings or the hound. You run into Katie first.

“Hound.” Your sister says. You spin on your heel, then you and Katie both empty your clips shooting the hellhound. Ten more gunshots ring out this time from behind the hound. The hound drops dead. At least one of the bullets was lethal.

“You leave my kid sisters alone… bitch.” Dean says as he puts his gun in the waistband of his jeans. “You girls alright?”

“For the moment.” Katie replies. “Where’s John and Sam?”

“John is currently out of harm’s way in a salt ring.” You reply. “No idea where Sam went.”

“I’m right here.” Sam says walking up behind you scaring the living daylights out of you. You punch your brother in the bicep before you go get John.

“Is it dead?” John ask when you walk over to him.

“Yup.” You reply. “Let’s get out of here.”

“No arguments there.” John pauses as you break the salt circle and make it look like a spill. He just shrugs and follows you out of the warehouse. The next day or so John is just as shaken as Sherlock was when he first encountered the hound.

“You’re going to be a little bit on edge for awhile John.” You tell him.

“How do you know?” Your friend asks in response.

“Because it happened to me as well as my siblings.”

Now when John gets a call about the original client that gave Sherlock the case, you, John, Sherlock and Lestrade get up and go to find him.

When this other hellhound comes out of the fog you realize you’re weaponless and by the looks of things, your throat is about to get ripped out. You back up against a tree cursing yourself for being so stupid. “Y/N, whatever you’re seeing isn’t real.” Someone yells over the commotion. The beast in front of you comes closer and somehow manages to remove a noticeable sized chunk out of your arm.

“Excuse my language, but if this thing isn’t fucking real, how the fuck did it manage to take a fucking chunk out of my god damned arm?!” You snap, holding your uninjured hand against the wound trying to slow the blood escaping from your injury.

“You’re imagining it!” The voice yells, distracting you from the blood. It’s more than likely Sherlock going off the tone of voice. “None of this is real!”

“Bull-fucking-shit!” Sherlock and John runs over to you when the fog clears.

“Can I see your arm?” John asks. You nod and move your hand away from the wound. He winces when he sees that unfortunately, your injury wasn’t a hallucination.

“Okay… maybe you weren’t imagining it.” Sherlock says. You throw him a Winchester bitch face.

“No fucking shit, Sherlock.” You retort.

“Wow, you swearing like a drunken sailor.” Lestrade says. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say more than bitch.”

“Yeah well I normally don’t swear in front my friends… John and Sherlock are the exceptions.” You wince when John wraps a handkerchief around your arm to slow the blood flow.

“I’ll stitch you up when we get back to the inn.” John states.

“What happened to you?” Sam asks when John temporarily leaves the room to grab his first aid kit.

“I have no idea but something took a decent sized chunk out of my arm.” You answer. “Which fucking hurt.”

“Looks like it.” John gets back before he starts treating your injury he gives you some painkillers.

“Hey, at least I got hit on my arm instead of the side.” You joke, trying to ignore the needle and thread going into your arm.

“That’s true.” John chuckles. “I still can’t believe Sherlock wore nothing except a sheet to Buckingham Palace.”

“Didn’t Mycroft tell us to act like adults?” John nods in response. “How did you word it- I doubt it, he forgets his pants, I blog about it and I’m the queen of sass or something.”

“Close enough.”

“And the painkillers just kicked in… what did you give me John, morphine?” You ask when the painkillers kick in, you asked mainly because whatever John gave you made you feel like you were either drunk or stoned.

“Morphine would take to long to get into your system Y/N. I gave you a painkiller that is related to morphine just faster acting.” John answers with a shrug. He finishes patching you up. Since you’re currently a little bit high, one of your siblings helps you get to bed and you’re out like a light. 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 “Why the hell did you give me such a potent painkiller John?” You ask, the next day on the way back to Baker Street.

“First fast acting one I had.” John replies. You groan. The painkillers were wearing off and you felt terrible.

“Sometimes I really hate you, John.” You lean your head back against the headrest. John chuckles.

“You got to admit, you were pretty funny with that painkiller in your system sis.” Sam points out.

“Please tell me you didn’t take a video.” You mutter.

“I didn't… Dean did though.”

“I’m going to kick both of your asses so hard it won’t be funny.”

“Whatever you say kiddo.”

→ ← → ← → ← → ← → ← → ← → ← → @the-third-winchester-warrior @flannels-and-rocksalt @always-keep-writing-spn @winchesters-favorite-girl @caroldanverseinatardis @spnkisum @thewinsisterchronicles @simply-wins-little-sis @moose-and-sqruille-lover @thewinsister @mrspadackles @spnsisimagines @percussiongirl2017

[elizabethrobertajones]

Hey Lizzy, do you think Michael was a bigger bad guy in Season 5 than Lucifer? Everything that was happening could have been prevented by Michael, if only he decided that The Apocalypse was not worth it. To me, Michael could've "walked off the chessboard" and stopped Lucifer's evil plans without needing to fight. Lucifer wasn't the one above reasoning, Michael was. What do you think?

I absolutely agree that he was the bigger bad guy… I hadn’t thought about his motivations so much because he seems impossible to reason with that I can’t imagine he’d actually have walked off the chessboard in any version of this, but he was the one kept at arms length and represented through the most slimy intermediary of Zachariah, who is probably the most easily-despised character on the show ever, and that’s just his underling as a taster to his personality. :P

The narrative played with it in a lot of ways - Lucifer you’d EXPECT to be the worst because of the name, although I think he was doing truly evil things with truly evil methods all year, and all their previous trauma and all the mytharc related death sources back to him through the whole show, e.g. Azazel working on his orders. 

I think Michael represents the unfeeling establishment in a lot of ways - that there wasn’t really an option to him of walking off and not doing the thing and that fate was sealed by the fact Lucifer had already done a whole lot of awful… In 2x13 he’s described as “The fighter of demons. Holy force against evil.” and in a lot of ways he’s paralleled to Dean in roles and family dynamic, but in a really bad way. He represents the part of Dean that could be taken to the extreme to kill his brother if he was ~too evil~ and whether we’re sympathetic to Sam or Lucifer on this matter, Michael is not because he has the most absolute, black and white view on evil ever, the same thing that Dean was being taught to set aside in season 2 when this comparison was first made and the arc about him being a killer or not was first floated. Dean does have compassion and when Cain asks him about it later he says he didn’t kill Sam because you never give up on family, ever. 

Michael seemed to have one purpose only and that was to do what God said up to and including killing his brother if he had to (although I suspect it was really more like striking him down and throwing him in the cage because of the whole Mark business, when you look back on it with retcons >.>) and the way he’s represented in the narrative, as the mystery person running Heaven we only know through his underlings - that is, a mindless army of angels and a middle management of snivelling brown-nosers in suits whose primary character trait is being petty - doesn’t reflect well on his compassion. We can deduce just from Cas’s programming and comments on archangels etc that Michael is so absolute and black and white, and since he’s been running Heaven, he is the root cause of what makes it everything that it is, especially as God’s absence is so heavily emphasised. 

When it came to the storytelling in season 5, they showed us Lucifer in the first episode, and just a warning that Dean was Michael’s vessel, so in the first episode Dean is the one with the big burden, and though we might be able to guess Sam has the same thing coming because the Lucifer thing has been so tied to him, we see Lucifer get his standby vessel so he can go literally raise Hell for a while, and he fucks around playing the pantomime villain. In 5x04 the manipulation is coming from MICHAEL’S camp, showing us Lucifer as the villain who wins and the angels are all gone and can’t do anything about it, but Zach is the bad guy of the episode and it’s part of the manipulation on DEAN and the weight put on his shoulders. They’re USING Lucifer as the ~wooo scary~ bad guy to convince Dean. 

Michael only gets a few minutes of actual screentime and only 1 appearance before the showdown, and I think holding back on his appearance made him far more the threat. Lucifer didn’t NEED Sam to fuck shit up because he was already causing huge earthquakes and gearing up to wipe cities off the map. He had Death tethered; the damage he was causing was already very real and he could have kept going and going and Sam saying yes was a way to slow that down as much as to have the big old showdown. Finding out about the rings and using them was again something they could have done without Michael - in the end all he was was bait to draw Lucifer out because Lucifer wouldn’t face him until he had a vessel strong enough he was sure he could win the fight. The THREAT of Michael is that he JUST wants to fight Lucifer and go for another round of the true story of Supernatural - the Cain and Abel/Michael Lucifer/God Amara fight that Sam and Dean are the lightning rods for. The actual THREAT in the show, really, is never that the entire planet will get blown up or whatever - if Sam n Dean die good but that happens, oh well, sad but noble ending. The darkest, worst way it goes is Dean kills Sam, bending to the endless pressure of the narrative which they inhabit, in a universe engineered in a duality between siblings with a creator/destroyer dynamic. 

And Michael was the instigator there, the example of the Dean/God/Cain side of things that would destroy the sibling for being bad or dark or in need of saving from themselves or to save others from them or whatever. The real damage, the real threat in the narrative, is Dean killing Sam, and has been since season 2 in the sense that it’s just put out there that he might one day have to do it if it comes down to “kill him or save him” which is the same problem all the other versions of their story had until they hopefully broke the cycle by ~the river ends at the source~ing God and Amara. 

Once Michael had possessed Adam and Dean had overcome this huge burden and the story switches all gears to Sam’s redemption arc and giving them a way to defeat Lucifer if Sam will sacrifice himself (and so nothing like Dean’s enormous personal arc of resisting everything Michael stands for and his so-called destiny to give into it knowing it will almost certainly be how he ends up killing his brother because 5x04 and he also believes that they “keep each other human” so as soon as he leaves Sam unattended he’ll somehow end up possessed probably :P), the fact that there had been choice there (in the sense that Dean has historically always overcome destiny and always had the philosophy against it in a different way to Sam that reflects how they won in 5x22 the entire show) is totally different for Sam and Lucifer. Lucifer as the obvious villain cavorting around has to be stopped and Sam has his own reckoning with him that NEEDS to happen and it’s been framed the entire time as something that has to happen via Sam being possessed - Michael is still out there now and with Dean not involved he suddenly has no power to STOP Michael from fighting and killing Lucifer (Cas seems certain he’d win and I listen to Cas and also this makes sense in the narrative and NOW we know Michael had that cruel lance so thanks season 12 once more for proving me right :P). 

So the threat going into 5x22 is not that Lucifer will kill Michael and Adam, because that’s boring, and then go do the apocalypse, because that’s impersonal to the characters especially if Dean’s dead so we don’t even have Endverse versions of them to assume are out there, but that Michael will kill Lucifer and Sam, because that’s PERSONAL, so again he is the thing that they’re swinging against, the REASON they need a no-kill ending because SAM is involved and will get hurt (by Michael), and boxing Lucifer (and Sam) away is the plan to stop  him because Michael can’t be reasoned with, so the only option is to take Lucifer off the playing field entirely so Michael can’t go after him - for the sake of the planet but also for the sake of not killing Sam. Because the Cain and Abel model says Michael will kill his brother and Michael thinks Lucifer is evil and must be stopped and as a representation of the worst mindset of Dean programmed by John (that Dean has been resisting all along since 2x01 when John did this to him in the same way God did it to Michael) that’s just what he has to do.

I mean the other side is always valid as a threat and something to be concerned about/care about, and for the characters weighs on them all the time as a thing they need to worry about, but the stories are powered by what’s PERSONAL and why them and not literally anyone… Adam here helpfully representing “literally anyone” :P The 3rd brother they just can’t afford to care about as much. Because we’re supposed to care about Sam so much more, and we know Michael is so absolutely unreasonable (not that I seriously trust Lucifer to have lain up arms but the point was I think to prove to us and for Lucifer needling Michael into it that he WOULD kill him and couldn’t forgive him for what he was/what he’d done), the threat is all absolutely coming from Michael, to the point he’s the one Cas “hey assbutt”s away for a few minutes because they hope there’s a chance to get Sam back to do the ring thing but Michael is not going to give Dean the chance to talk to Lucifer/Sam to try a peaceful solution. He HAS to fight and therefore he is the conflict in that scene.

So I think from the start of the season the conflict is presented first and foremost as Dean resisting Michael, Michael is built up as a totally unreasonable villain way before he ever says anything, representing destiny and the worst version of the cosmic sibling story, and then once Dean has resisted his part, Michael switches to the overall part of the story that causes the conflict, as the backdrop to what Sam is fighting for when he overcomes Lucifer, and why it’s so urgent not just to stop Lucifer but the WHY and WHEN of the fight and for their own PERSONAL stories it’s important that Michael is there to fail to kill Lucifer and to be resisted. His inability to let go is why he ends up going into the cage, pointlessly, leading to the instability in Heaven - although ultimately a better, more peaceful, hands-off Heaven once his influence is pretty much all gone. 

Also it’s a crying shame they never brought him back, but he’s just too HUGE. If he comes back it will be a storyline that pretty much has to end the show because he was such an impossible villain to have on the stage, that he *only* showed up in a flashback, where history disarmed him from acting, as a ball of light to possess Adam, off-screen, and in 5x22 to say his bit and be locked away. And, I think, why they have emphasised he’s broken now, in case they do bring him back, because if they think Lucifer is too huge an element to reasonably have running around in the story, Michael would bring it crashing to its knees at full power. Raphael wanting to restart the apocalypse was bad enough for the world… But they CAN bring Lucifer back and have him run around like a pantomime villain, and they can find ways to restrain him and suck all the terror out of him and turn him into a caricature. Michael was so absolute and unwavering and absolutely needle point to a purpose, I’m not sure what they’d do with him. I mean bringing in that lance was amazing, and underlined that Michael only had one purpose, and how utterly powerful and awful he is - seeing his power destroying Cas like that but knowing it was meant for Lucifer… I mean, THAT is the scary character who stays hidden in the shadows the entire length of the show, in the way where Lucifer managed for like 2 seasons before he was like HI I’M HERE PAY ATTENTION TO ME, which then became his role but in larger text every subsequent time they’ve dragged him back out, and as loud as that gets, it proportionately diminishes him as a character >.> Horror works best when you don’t know the adversary or they’re so utterly incomprehensibly *something* that you don’t know how to deal with them…

… except I think that’s the problem the writers might have with Michael too :P

[rupertgayesarchive]

hfym has given me what if brain worms and I’ve decided to make it your problem. okay so one of my favorite things from hyfm was the Sam meets cas dynamic i REALLY enjoyed it. so then i was like... lol what if Sam had met cas and dean as they are in s14. or even s8. that’d be crazy. but then, yeah what if Sam never left and he catches up to dean a bunch of years later that’d be insane. but then the other ask spurred me into realizing that this necessitates Sam never having left Stanford even though like demons had vested interest in getting him out.. and like you said (lucifer voice) we’ll always end up here regarding the s4/5 apocalypse. but i was on a 2 hour drive through florida swampland so i became committed to figuring out in my head how to make it work and how the events would land. do you see what you’ve DONE...

i was like. okay so Sam needs to be kept at Stanford, but demons want to keep him there so there needs to be another external source that wants to counteract that. and i was like... okay who doesn’t want the apocalypse to happen. and i was like, oh gabriel! same motivations as mystery spot but less murdery because he isn’t trying to be insane & teach a lesson. additionally i assume he’s powerful enough to sway the influence of both demons and angels. and then this posed several problems, firstly what would dean sell his soul for. but then that isn’t so much a problem because if they really wanted him to go to hell they could find something.. I’m not sure on a deal necessarily but! OH also the demons would want you know the boyking but he’d be missing. but then i was like... Michael made do with adam as a vessel and they were fine. why couldn’t Lucifer push adam into this role (im sorry midam). like heaven resurrected him and used his mom as bait lucifer or his demons could absolutely do that as well. or keep him alive and use some other motivation.

i don’t think Sam not being there would change much about s4-5 deancas development.. mayhaps even remove some animosity because there’s nobody for cas to call an abomination. hm. i think Sam being gone would have a ripple effect around s6 and i CANT figure it out... Cas would decide to raise adam but also! I don’t even think Adam could do the jumping into hell swan song thing. love him but he is DUST compared to Sam. hm... maybe they could have tried something else or done it a different way and Cas would end up raising him wrong like in canon but.. hm. much to think about. sorry for the essay I’ve got problems

bestie....... thinking abt supernatural? get well soon 😔 it's too late for me though so here have an essay in turn:

okay so FIRST of all let me say that while having sam not have his life continuously ruined by his bloodfreak status would be nice, i also think if he didn't go through all the shit he went through, with dean specifically, he wouldn't have had the mental/emotional fortitude or idk, codependent laced superpowers that let him fall into the Cage and stop the apocalypse on purpose. like i love s1 sam, but idk if being estranged from his brother and comfy with the 'normal apple pie life' would've made him ready to fight lucifer himself. if sam was replaced by adam then i think like. the world would've ended.

okay okay but to play the game - a lot of it is prophecy-based anyhow, and if you want a powerful player to try and twist things (like gabriel) enough to weasel out of it, then i would've done something where like, he goes back in time, sics some ancient evil on them, makes angels and demons think they're not just dead but have ceased to exist or are in a plane inaccessible to them by traditional means, and take the actual sam and dean somewhere else to grow up, do supreme extra special rib warding up the wazoo, and kind of monitor them from there and hope no one catches on as they get older. obviously sam would still have visions but hey, maybe the YED wouldn't be able to track him to draw him into the special children hunger games, or someone with an archangel level of power could get rid of him before that. maybe if you're really dedicated you can go around and sabotage some of the seals that need to be broken just to make it more difficult for all parties involved.

while sam staying in stanford - or at least out of the life - could work, i think it'd have to happen way earlier, dean would have to also be out of the life, and it's a gambit of if they end up hunting anyway, will they be woefully underprepared for the shit they'll have to deal with because they haven't grown up doing it. if you really, really wanted to stop the apocalypse, as say, a semi-invested angel of the lord, i think you'd be better off getting rid of adam (rip midam as you said) and making dean inaccessible in some way. the angels may be more likely to actually for real stop the apocalypse if there was no way for them to get a vessel for michael that he could fight in. so, idk, get to adam before he was born, and when john winchester makes his deal, leave him in hell and hope it'd be too much of a rescue mission for angels to easily undertake.

s6 is also hard bc a lot of cas's story happens offscreen. while sam and dean being attached at the metaphorical hip saves the world, it very much is why dean cannot move on in s6 and part of why cas can't confide in dean about his plan to open purgatory. again, if cas could somehow obtain powerful allies that could help rival raphael, then mayhaps... i know some spn fans like to clown on other spn fans bc some people really do be like gabriel appears in this fic and solves all our problems but damn it he really could have... so much potential... the political weight cas could have in heaven if gabe was the bored right hand man acting as muscle.

[spn-fashion]

2x10 Hunted

A: Wearing our jacket indoors because why not? Outerwear isn’t for outside. . .

He’s slightly sweaty and looks like shit overall, so this doesn’t bode well for him.

A: He needs an invitation to our world summit of the butt chins.

Yep, still sweaty and sleep-deprived, but he is telling (or refusing to tell) this therapist about getting powers because - spoiler - he’s a “special child” like Sam. Sadly, he doesn’t make it through the opening, and now Sam and Dean have a case.

AMOEBA SHIRT.

“I swear! It’s THIS BIG.”

Everything about this - the half-button, the tone-on-tone pattern, Sam’s expressive arms - cracks us up.

Also, we are having a heart-to-heart: Dean reveals that John told him to take out Sam if he goes dark side. But never mind that. LOOK AT SAM’S SHIRT. That is not the shirt to wear to an emotional talk. So distracting.

Sam runs off because he is Upset with Dean.

Ellen is not having any of your shit, Sam. She calls Dean and tells him where Sam is.

Have we mentioned how much we love Ash and his cut-off shirts?

Maria wanted to just say “cut-offs” but realized that implied booty shorts which is another image entirely.

A: I feel like he owns those, too.

Sam asks Ash to track down children whose mothers died in nursery fires in 1993, aka the “special children.” (Have we mentioned this storyline enough??) Our sweaty friend (Scott) from the opening is one such special child - surprise, surprise - along with Sam, Max Miller, and Andy Gallagher.

It’s even better because his shirt is not buttoned and sans undershirt. Really, why does Ash bother wearing clothes at all? He’s at the bare (hee hee) minimum.

We interrupt this fashion discussion for a mini-sturgeon face.

We meet Ava who had a vision about Scott’s demise and Sam’s possible future death. Could she be another “special child”?? Yes, in case you haven’t paid attention at all these last few episodes.

Ava is wearing a lacy cami under her very mid-2000s jacket. 

Why, hello, Gordon. He fires at Ava and Sam before Dean tackles him. Sadly, Dean is bested and tied up elsewhere, ostensibly as bait for Sam, who is Gordon’s ultimate target.

Sam is sad because his outfit is so sad and brown. What did the other colors ever do to you?

Gordon is going for Maximum Layers with a long-sleeved shirt under his flannel. A demon told Gordon that Sam is part of a coming war, and Gordon believes Sam is evil because of Sam’s (unknowing - for now) involvement in a demonic war. Sam must die by Gordon’s logic, and Gordon has laid a trap (capturing Dean) for him.

#emoting

He’s looking so ~intense~ because he’s trying to warn Sam about Gordon’s booby-traps.

This shot is so ridiculous and dramatic, it makes us laugh. Behold: Sam’s smoking shoeboot. No laces, easy on, easy off.

Spoiler: Sam didn’t explode. Instead, Sam calls the police and Gordon is arrested. The boys try to meet up with Ava, who isn’t answering her phone, but instead discover her fiancé dead in bed. Dun dun DUN.

{Screencaps courtesy of Screencapped.net}

[superwholock-marvel-images]

Through time and space part 7

Part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six

Katie gets a call from Dean, your brothers need your and your sister’s help on a case. The only issue is, is that neither of you have enough money to afford two airline tickets to get to Southeast Iowa Regional Airport, and then money for a cab to take the two of you to Arkey.

“I don’t think we can do it De.” You say looking at the prices on your laptop.

“Aren’t you two with the Doctor?” Sam asks.

“If we were with the Doctor, this would be an entirely different story… but he sent us away and decommissioned the TARDIS, so (nickname) and I are kind of stuck at Baker Street.” Katie adds in as Sherlock and John lumber up the stairs. Both of them look like they got into a fistfight.

“What the hell happened you two?” You as looking up from your computer screen.

“I asked John to punch me in the face… he wouldn’t do it so I punched him.” Sherlock replies. “It escalated from there.”

“I’ll go get the first aid kit.” You say standing up and closing the lid of your laptop and head to the kitchen and grab the first aid kit before handing it to John.

“What, you don’t want to do it?” John jokes.

“You’re more qualified than me Dr. Watson.” Katie snickers softly to herself.

“Do I even want to ask?” Dean speaks up, you momentarily forgot you and your sister were on the phone with your brothers.

"Just my flatmates being themselves."

🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

When Sherlock hears about your brothers needing help on a hunt, he bribes his brother to give you and Katie airline tickets in order to help Sam and Dean out.

"Thought you guys didn't have the funds to get here." Dean comments when picking you and your sister up from the airport.

“Sherlock bribed the government.” Katie answers as she tosses her duffle bag into the trunk of the car.

“That’s one way how to put it.” You add in as you throw your bag into the trunk then close it. “Sherlock and Mycroft have a weird relationship… rather not go into detail about that.”

While one the road Katie pops a question that has been bothering you since you last talked to the boys on the phone. “Sam, what pulled you back into hunting?” Sam hangs his head slightly.

“Something murdered my girlfriend, I guess I just want to find whatever killed her and get even.” Sam answers.

“So, you’re basically becoming Dad… one who doesn’t care about his family, just wanting to get revenge.” You speak up.

“No.” Sam turns to face you. “I said even, not revenge. There is a huge difference Y/N.”

“If you say so… what are we going after anyway?”

“Not sure yet. Something is causing people to drop dead left and right. The latest victim supposedly died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob.” You lean forward and prop your elbows against the top of the other bench seat. Your interest piqued.

“The human mad cow disease?”

“Yes… do I even want to know how you know that?”

“John’s a doctor.”

“Oh that makes sense.”

🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝

“I’m going to pretend that Dean didn’t just do that.” You say softly to your sister. Katie giggles. Dean didn’t want to say the four of you were siblings (again) Dean decided to call Sam ‘honey’ and slap his ass.

“Would you rather him doing that to you?” She replies.

“Oh hell no.”

“You just proved my point little sis.” Katie then drapes her arm around your shoulders and the two of you go off to do some investigating of your own.

While on the road, Dean tells Sam that Dad checked up on him while at school just to keep an eye on him. “Now when he found out Y/N left the country, he panicked a bit.” Dean explains.

“He calmed down when he caught me talking to you.” Katie adds in.

“Please tell me he didn’t hear Sherlock shooting the wall, or anything involving a case… did he?” You ask in response.

“He overheard the case with the woman in pink, but that is it I believe.” You lean your head against the window with a relieved sigh. “Dad said something along the lines of glad she’s putting her hunting skills to good use.”

“Did he really say that?” You ask trying not to laugh, without much luck.

“Yup.”

“That is freaking hilarious. The only time I’ve used my hunting knowledge is when Sherlock put the severed vampire head in the fridge.” Dean actually pulls off the road and throws you a look.

“Did you just say your roommate had a severed vampire head in the fridge?” He asks.

“Yup. Trust me, Sherlock always has crazy experiments hidden in the kitchen… you get used to it after awhile.”

“I don’t know if I like you spending time with that psychopath.”

“High functioning sociopath there is a difference.”

“Still, I don’t know if you should stay there.”

“Even after Sherlock saved my life more than once?”

“I don’t want to see you hurt okay, I’m just trying to keep you safe.”

“Dean, Sherlock might be a little crazy… but he is a good man, maybe someday even a great one.”

“Why are you sticking up for him exactly?” You suddenly find the impala’s floor incredibly interesting.

“Because we’re a family.” You answer incoherently.

“Didn’t catch what you said (nickname).” Sam says. You sigh and move your gaze to the ceiling of the car.

“I said because we’re a family.” Ignoring the shocked looks of everyone you pull up your shirt slightly revealing the scar from the sniper bullet. “When Moriarty used John and I for bait for Sherlock, I got hit by a sniper bullet… John removed the bullet then stitched me up, Sherlock literally spent the next two days keeping me company and making sure I wouldn’t tear the stitches!” That last part is a lie but you really don’t want to explain what happened with the Doctor during World War Two. You let your shirt fall back over your most recent scar.

🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝

“Hey, guys!” You say cheerfully when you get a video call on your laptop from Sherlock and John. You sit down on the foot of one of the hotel beds.

“There’s our source of sarcasm.” John jokes.

“What makes me the source of sarcasm?” You ask with a shit-eating grin plastered on your face.

“Sherlock just insults everyone, and well you know what happened last time I used sarcasm.”

“Oh yeah I know. You almost got yourself and your date killed because of it.”

“Thanks for the reminder (nickname).”

“You’re welcome. How’s Baker street?”

“Boring.” Sherlock answers for John. “Haven’t had a decent case in weeks.”

“What about that case with Irene Adler?”

“Nothing… she gave me her phone- it’s password locked. I can’t get into it.”

“I can hack into it if you want me to.”

“You know how to hack?” John asks a bit shocked.

“I know how to do a lot of things John, Sherlock send me the phone’s info and I’ll see what I can do.”

“Information sending now.” Sherlock answers. Two seconds later your phone goes off.

“Got it. Let’s see here.” You open up the message from Sherlock and get to work.

“What are you doing?” Dean asks entering the motel room and setting down the bag of food.

“Currently trying to hack into someone’s phone.” You answer. “Got anything yet Sherlock?”

“Nope, it’s still locked.” Sherlock answers. “Also you made John uneasy when you typed in that last password.”

“Ghost typing, I know. Hey, it’s better than a poltergeist or even a demon for that matter.”

“You got a point there.”

“Y/N have you gotten any form of sleep recently?” Dean asks as he hands you a cup of coffee.

“My body is still on London time… and thanks, De.” You answer as you move your laptop off your lap and onto the bed. You take a sip of your drink. John then reappears on camera. One look and he knew that you’re just running on energy fumes, he also notices how pale you are currently.

“Y/N, take the day off.” John says in a kind, yet a bit demanding tone.

“I don’t know if I can though John… I mean I kind of have to help everyone out here.”

“Well I’m not asking. As your friend as well as your doctor I’m telling you to take the day off and get some rest.”

“I’ll make sure that she will.” Dean says speaking up. You sigh to yourself, great Dean is now going to baby you to no end.

“Is it bad I’d rather have Moriarty shoot me again over my brother treating me like a baby?” You ask in response.

“Hmm… sounds like Mycroft.” Sherlock points out.

“Thanks for the boost of confidence Sherlock.”

🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝

You manage to catch a few hours of sleep when Dean was out with Sam and Katie, not a lot though. You wake with a start when the motel room door slams open. “Damn hunter’s instincts.” You mutter when you see it’s just your siblings. You roll back over hoping to catch a few more hours, Dean has other ideas though.

“Hey since you’re awake we need your help.” He says.

“With what?” You ask your voice heavy with sleep.

“The hunt what else kiddo?”

“Thought John said that I look like shit and need the day off.”

“Since when have we obeyed the rules?”

“You’re a dick.” You then start to yawn.

“I know this. While you were out Dad called.”

You didn’t hear ‘Dad called’ you hear ‘Sam bawled.’ You yawn again.

“Not sure what that has to do with me… can I go back to sleep now?”

“No. We’re hitting the road in ten minutes.” You groan and roll out of the covers and drowsily start packing your things.

“Your going to get nowhere when you’re packing while half asleep.” Katie says helping you out with your bag and things making sure that you didn’t leave anything behind. By the time the four of you are on the road you’re using Katie as a pillow. You’re such a sound sleeper you don’t know Sam and Katie left until you and Dean are almost in a small town in Indiana.

“Hey Sleeping Beauty awakens.” Dean jokes.

“Not funny.” You answer. “Where’s Sammy and Katydid?” You rarely call Katie, Katydid- it just slips out time to time.

“You slept through that whole bit… anyways it’s just you and me at the moment, kiddo.” You stretch popping your back.

“When was the last time that it was just the two of us?”

“Hunting, never.” Your brother answers drumming his fingers against the steering wheel. “Spending quality time together, you were in kindergarten. Sam and Katie weren’t out of school yet- I took you to go get some ice cream.”

“I remember that… it was just before Mother’s Day and I was still coping with my mom’s death.”

“You barely started talking to us again.” You laugh lightly. You and Dean talk the rest of the way to the town.

“Dean, wait a second- look at that.” You say pointing to the apple orchard.

“It’s an orchard, nothing special about it.” Dean replies.

“Not the orchard. I was meaning the scarecrow…”

“Oh.”

“Want to check that creepy son of a bitch out before we head to town?”

“I don’t see why not.” The two of you explore the orchard, you also take a few photos of the scarecrow on your phone.

“Different human body parts… that’s so not creepy.”

“Know what this thing is?”

“It’s not a scarecrow that’s for sure. It’s a pagan god…”

“How do you know?” Dean asks.

“I’ll explain it back in at the car… right now I think we should get the fuck out of here.”

“Good point.” You two get out of the orchard, an idea starts to form.

“Dean what if the two of us go into town at different times, you go in now, I’ll join you a half an hour later so they don’t suspect anything and I can get more information on the pagan god.” You suggest.

“That’s a great idea.”

“Could I have the keys so I can get the research.” Dean laughs and tosses you the Impala's keys.

“Hope you remember how to drive.”

“Of course I remember how to drive.”

A half an hour later you show up and meet up with your brother, the two of you pretend to be strangers. When the two of you get locked in the cellar your phone starts to ring. “You have signal in here?” Dean asks.

“Yeah… the Doctor did something to my phone so I always have signal.” You pull out your phone and put it on speakerphone. “Hello?”

“Thank God you answered.” Sam says. “I’ve been trying to get ahold of Dean without luck.”

“Dean doesn’t have signal.”

“You do though?”

“Ask Katie to explain it, her phone is the same way.”

“Anyways, where are you?”

“Currently in a cellar.”

“About to become scarecrow food.” Dean adds in. You hear footsteps coming towards you.

“Gotta go. Sorry guys.”

🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝

-Sam POV-

When Y/N says that they have to go, I share a look with Katie. We silently agree to go back for them. The two of us say fair well to Meg and we hotwire a car and drive to where Dean and Y/N are.

“Sam, there’s Dean’s car.” Katie points out.

“Good eye Katie.” I reply. Once parked the two of us run into the orchard. We find our siblings relatively quickly. “Dean, Y/N?” I ask.

“Oh! Oh, I take everything back I said. I’m so happy to see you. Come on.” Dean says as I untie him and Katie unties Y/N. “How’d you get here?”

“We stole a car.” I answer, Dean laughs lightly.

“Keep an eye on that scarecrow.” Y/N states.

“What scarecrow?” Katie asks.

“We should go… NOW!” Y/N exclaims with wide eyes. The four of us take off running. The next day we burn the oldest tree in the orchard so all these sacrifices will stop. The four of us then leave town not looking back.

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@the-third-winchester-warrior

@winchesters-favorite-girl

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