#spn Unity

[shallowseeker]

On the whole, as a character, Dean has great gut instincts.

He's stellar at remembering a person's MO/objective, and his hackles raise when things don't add up.

(ex: with Metatron; he didn't trust Naomi for shits and giggles; he "trusted" her because Metatron's actions didn't make sense)

But the point of his character is that he's human. Even though Dean gets it right a lot of the time, he's not a perfect seer. He's gonna be wrong sometimes, especially when he's been pushed to duress.

(ex. Dean trusted Gadreel "Ezekiel", and the he got used as a pawn in Crowley's war to takeHell from Abaddon etc etc.)

And because his instinct are usually so good, getting it "wrong" is is so, so painful for Dean.

////

On this note...

We got God himself tellin' us...

Like, do you ever just sit back and think about how Dean went wholesale into Chuck's bucket of shit there at the end?

And what that probably did to Dean's psyche?

Like, I mean: owch. It's like an infected splinter he can't pull out.

This was a moment there in 14x20 that Dean turned his back on everything he stood for. Dean is usually the one telling us that destiny and authority figures are bullshit.

And yet, you get this line of Dean's, falling in line:

"We got God himself telling us..."

14x20

///

Aside// I feel like... it just took so much for Chuck to get Dean here, you know? This is what leads to Dean's full-blown existential crisis.

"I used to think what we did mattered." etc etc:

14x20

///

Pick up the gun, Dean...

And then when Dean can't pull the damn trigger, we get Chuck showing his true colors.

Dean is faced with an intense sense of betrayal AND an unspeakable sense of failure.

14x20

///

At first, Dean's not totally paralyzed with his anger and grief, right? At first, Dean goes on the attack against Chuck:

14x20

//

14x20

//

BUT THEN. Oh, THEN.

"Stop— STOP!"

14x20

///

Jack dies.

And even in that moments after Jack's death, Dean's not dealing with it.

He doesn't quite believe his eyes.

Jack's dead in front of him, and something in Dean is clinging to: "Maybe it's NOT true, because Chuck said the gun was the ONLY way."

Dean's clinging to this as a grief-delaying tactic.

14x20

Dean's brain: Maybe Jack's not actually dead...

//////

I was wrong. And it hurts.

It's a multi-whammy, too. Dean is faced with many uncomfortable truths that are too painful to directly look at:

(a) Even with all that happened (Mary, innocent civilians getting killed by Jack's team-up with Heaven), Dean didn't want Jack dead. For a moment, he thought he did. He thought he wanted this "shell" of Jack neutralized. But now that he's faced with it, it couldn't be clearer to him just how much he didn't want that. (b) Dean is also faced with the fact that Cas was right not to fall in line with Chuck's plan. Chuck was a snake in the grass. Despite Dean telling Cas to get on board, Cas didn't. Now, Dean feels guilty and maybe even foolish for swallowing Chuck's lie. He even verbally announced that it was "the only way." Here's what Dean said earlier in the episode:

Dean facing that? That hurts!

It speaks to how low Dean's mental health and resilience was that he even got on board with a destiny-oriented plan in the first place.

///

Protective mechanisms

So... Dean puts protective mechanisms in place. Otherwise, he'd fall apart. (Will eventually fall apart, actually. In just a few eps’ time.)

And despite everything, Dean's looking to Cas for spouse-coded support in this grief:

Reeling, Dean tries to keep his eyes on Cas and Jack.

////

Yet!

It's too painful to admit that he was wrong about Chuck. I think this is what Dean means when he later says he "couldn't admit he was wrong."

14x20

Here in 14x20, Dean starts having diarrhea of the mouth, babbling about how he always knew Chuck was a danger.

We see that in addition to being devastated by his losses... he feels like a fool.

It's not his fault Chuck betrayed him. Or that Chuck backed him into a murder-suicide sacrificial corner re: The Equalizer.

But Dean feels like he got duped. (Cas got duped, too, calling his father in the first place. Dean will eventually be sympathetic to that deep down, I think, taking that context into account. Cas didn't exactly lone wolf this time. Cas went to his own father, and that father betrayed all of them.)

Dean is usually THE GUY to see through destiny-style bullshit.

And here, he didn't. It hurts!

//

And... Losing Jack like that. It's just so horrible. Dean doesn't know what to say. So, he rambles.

It's painful to watch him try to cover, but it's also interesting to me that, at least until Belphagor arrives, Dean and Cas ARE talking to one another.

They're instinctually looking to one another for (grudging) support.

14x20

///

14x20

Like how Dean was in denial over Jack being dead ("I thought only the gun could..."), in our 15x01 script, we see more evidence of this sense of delayed grief: "maybe we get him back."

///

What does it take to get Dean hooked on revenge?

I guess my point with this post is about the wound of Chuck's betrayal. This was a huge blind spot for Dean, It was an uncharacteristic, grief-induced bowing to authority...

It did something remarkable to him. In a bad way.

It got Dean hooked on the thought of revenge.

I think it's this sense of overwhelming failure re: Chuck and of feeling like a fool that pushes him into it. Dean has usually been the one telling the audience that revenge is bullshit.

(Whether that's John's revenge, or Sam's revenge, or even Gabe's revenge in Unfinished Business):

13x20

///

And like, that's something, isn't it? For Dean to take up revenge, something had to go bad wrong.

Later in season 15, Dean accepts soulless Jack back into the house without a thought. Then, he expresses some wariness about the heart-eating and Bilie's plan:

SAM: Jack, you… you ate their hearts? JACK: I… I had to. DEAN: And you let him? [CAS nods.] DEAN: Hmm. 15x11

...

CAS: Billie kept him hidden in the Empty until Chuck went off world. JACK: She let me out when it was safe. DEAN: Safe to what? Eat a bunch of angel hearts? JACK: Safe to do what I have to. The hearts, they were just the beginning. They made me strong, but I-I’m not strong enough. I… If I do exactly what she says, if I follow her plan, then I’ll get stronger and… I’ll be able to kill God. 15x11

But ultimately? Dean goes along with it. :( Dean, Cas, and Jack all do. They're been beaten down in ways we've rarely seen on the show. (It's usually not all of them at once!)

///

Dean & Cas backslide, turning their backs on the very things they have stood for:

Dean and Cas are both backsliding after Jack returns, and that is so... interesting to me. Because why?

The STRESS of Jack's death and his re-emergence have them focusing on things that go against their idealized value systems.

They get hyperfocused on revenge and destiny:

//

It's like the grief has got them both so turned around that they can't see straight!

//

15x12

//

Anyway, Jack's death was a deep wound...

They want Jack back; they want the threat of Jack's murderer neutralized.

And like Revenge!John, like DemonBlood!Sam, like Godstiel, like MOC!Dean, like NaturalBornKiller!Mary...

Dean loses sight of the things he'd been trying to protect in the first place.

In his own words:

Sam gives him grace. After all, Sam's been there.

Sam not only pulled a gun on Dean but even accidentally ax-murdered him in a fit of Taurus-temper during one of Gabe's endless Tuesdays in Mystery Spot.

///

So... What does it take to truly "ruin" Dean?

We think about all that Dean's been through and how rarely he gets in line for revenge.

It makes this particular pain very special.

So, what does it take to get Dean on a revenge kick?

Well.

Jack Kline, for starters.........

Everything related to Jack. Jack taking on "Dean's" Michael-burden in Ouroboros, Jack killing Mary, and the murder OF Jack.

Jack is the difference-maker when it comes to "ruining" Dean.

Jack is the trump card.

The Equalizer intended to make Jack's death "the thing Dean wouldn't survive."

//

And see, like.

Chuck wants Dean to lose it:

He WANTED Dean's life to fall apart.

You remember Dean sassily saying, "Guess your life isn't so perfect, after all, Eight-Pack Mommy"????

That's Chuck.

Chuck looks at Dean's life, his happiness, his loved ones... and although he greedily scrolls through Dean's life, even living vicariously through it at times, there's something dangerously bitter hidden underneath that interest:

SAM: Wait, wait... Dean... Dean, no. Listen! [Back in the room where Chuck and Amara are] CHUCK: You hear that? AMARA: What? CHUCK: Dean. Brought to the edge of doubt. His sense of duty, his rage winning out in the end.

Chuck wants to crack him, to break him.

///

DEAN: I don't want to do this, but this is everything! SAM: No, it's not!

Dean doesn't want this. He doesn't!

////

Acting on our free will is a group effort

...and here, we see that in full view.

Rarely is Sam the one lending this kind of support. But it's because of the support Sam's been given in the past that he's in a position to support in return.

And Chuck is pissed. He doesn't get it. He doesn't get how them banding together to support each other during their worst moments is what makes them able to escape his clutches.

[Dean uncocks the gun and puts it away. Meanwhile, the door to the storeroom explodes and Chuck/Amara comes storming out] CHUCK: Are you kidding me?! After everything, all that, you... you did it again! 15x17

When Dean can't resist giving into despair, his family picks up the slack.

DEAN: [Fuck] you, Chuck. CHUCK: No, [fuck] you. You know what you do with broken toys? You throw them out. ... CHUCK: I mean... have fun watching him die. [Chuck points at Jack, who doubles over in pain] CAS: Jack. JACK: Help me! DEAN AND SAM: Jack, Jack, Jack. DEAN: Hey. [Jack's eyes glow gold, and golden light breaks through cracks in his skin] DEAN: Jack!

15x17

///

Cas supports Sam earlier in this very episode, which in turn enables Sam to support Dean.

As a family, they borrow support from one another.

The group support ends with Dean rising from the ashes of his existential crisis. He has renewed energy, ready to fight for Jack.

(Aside// In the next episode, 15x19, it's Sam who will lose hope, and Dean and Jack will try and lend their strength to him.)

@spnscripthunt-inactive

[megstiel-lovechild]

why isn't c included in dean's equation of chuck dies = everybody's freed? "now me and sam, we've got a shot at living a life" but what about cas? what about the guy who quite literally fell for you. i don't know whether it's dean tunnel visioning or chuck interfering or writers forgetting cas exists but. frowny face

[shirtlesssammy]

Castiel every day so often -- 138/139

Supernatural 15x17//Unity

[monstermoviedean]

see i can even buy dean saying jack isn't family. i don't like it. but i see it as dean trying to convince himself that this is the right move. that allowing jack to sacrifice himself will ultimately be a good call. that any reluctance dean feels is based on his stupid, weak, human feelings and if he has a divine destiny he has to let go of all that shit.

i don't agree with him. but i see the mental gymnastics he's doing and i feel sympathy for him.

[winchestress]

me recommending my favorite show to my friends

[throwupgirl]

me when theres one good line in an otherwise stupid and forgettable supernatural episode

[onespncap]

s15e17 -- "Unity"

[mmaeeve]

daily dean quote #190/366:

“i’d trade it all. i’d trade ‘em all for chuck in a heartbeat!”

- season 15, episode 17, unity

[shallowseeker]

hi shal!

re dean being willing to sacrifice jack... for me the throughline there is dean feeling powerless with things "above his paygrade." forgive that this is gonna be a bit long and rambling. but like as early as 1.04, we see dean being kind of overwhelmed by the more Cosmic nature of tackling a demon vs ghosts etc. and in season 4, he is so disbelieving that he is somehow equipped to stop the apocalypse. in 11.21 when he's desperately trying to get chuck's help with amara, he says, "Look, give me a – a vampire, and I'm good. But this – God's sister? That is way above my pay grade. I - It - Bottom line is i-it's you who has to take her out." this also ties a little bit into 2.18; he doesn't want to be in charge, he just wants to be part of a team.

it also reminds me of 15.06 - the episode dean spends in pajamas and reading off cereal boxes and acting kinda superficially silly. that episode always reminds me of the silly little jokes dean tries to crack in 1.20 after john comes back, while dean is trying to happily fall back into the good little soldier routine. and who do they find out isnt actually gone in 15.05? chuck. in both these instances, i think dean is dealing with feeling entirely powerless and hemmed in on all sides. so might as well crack a joke. dean is, i think, very very aware of his powerlessness in a world of supernatural creatures - e.g "i've never had powers" from 9.06.

15.05

DEAN: Without the gun? It’s God, Sam. And he’s coming for us. How the hell are we supposed to fight God?

5.17

DEAN: Angel world, angel rules, man.

so how does this tie back to jack? well the throughline there, i think, is billie. in s14 billie tells dean that there is only one way to stop michael and he believes her so firmly. even when jack kills michael, i dont think dean decides from that that billie was wrong. i think he sees all the consequences of jack's choice and it reaffirms for him that billie was right that any other choice about michael would result in a huge amount of damage. so when billie explains the plan about jack stopping chuck, i honestly think dean just believes that's the only way. and more than that, that he is just not equipped to change it. i mean its similar to his attitude in 14.20 when chuck tells him jack will destroy the world. and dean is devastated and also like... doesn't know what else to do but listen.

dean is resistant to authority figures and he is stubborn and gutsy... to a point. but there are times when shit gets so big and the powers at play feel so beyond him that he really doesn't know what else he can do. and though i think he would always, always rather sacrifice himself, that's not what's being offered to him.

idk sorry for the ramble and feel free to ignore but this is my understanding of his headspace.

Rambling always welcome. :-) Oh, yes, I agree with you. I think actually the 15x06 Golden Time *script goes out of i's way to describe Dean as fatalistic, overhwlemed, grief-stricken, and defeated. *My pet parallel is that season 15 Dean is in the same position as early-seasons Cas, losing faith in trusted foundations and, more importantly, in his self. He doesn't trust his own ability to change things!

And yes, Dean (and Cas and Sam) give up all the time! I think a nice way to look at is that, time and time again, it is the sharing of support that allows people to pick themselves up from their respective ashes.

Dean is wonderfully, honestly human. I personally think that the natural evolution of season 15 would be that it is Dean's previous grace towards others that "pays it forward" for his own recovery.

I.E. He's given grace and emotional support to others so often that his loved ones are finally going to return that grace ten-fold, understanding his psychological wound and helping him through it.

[megstiel-lovechild]

something about how both dean and adam/serafina view jack as a means to their own freedom/revenge... idk something to think about

[shirtlesssammy]

Dean Winchester every day -- 323/326

Supernatural 15x17//Unity

[menspussypowersactivate]

"Jack's not family!" Really?? Bitch?? Are you for real?? That's way to out of character, even for you.

[monstermoviedean]

dean's reaction to adam and serafina making out. is it just me or does he look grief-stricken in the first one

[winchestress]

call me Dean Winchester the way I don't care about Jack as much as everybody else does

[mybrainproblems]

.

[districtsleepsalonetonight]

This is Destiel lbr

I love soulmates but also this-