There are a few details I noticed in the last episode that I can’t stop thinking about. The main mysterious events bringing the brothers to town all went the same way: mysterious man appearing in front of the victim, a flash of light, then the victim disappeared and all that was left was clothes and some sort of herb powder on them.
All the explanations along the way made sense to me, until I saw the article about that herb – yarrow (Achillea millefolium) – on Sam’s laptop. Then I was a bit like… okay, since when does yarrow have yellow flowers? It’s usually white, sometimes with a pink hue, and there are some garden species that are red, but I couldn’t find any yellow ones when I tried.
Later, when Dean and Sam were sneaking into that witch’s house, there was a long dramatic zoom onto some tansy (Tancetum vulgare) growing nearby, and I was confused even more. Tansy actually HAS yellow flowers, and leaves kind of similar to those of yarrow, but they are definitely two very different plants – here’s yarrow:
and here’s tansy (definitely not yarrow):
Did the research really fail that much? Or more likely, why did someone change the information on purpose? Because that whole Professor Farqus article is copied from Wikipedia (oh come on, it’s readable, of course someone would have noticed this), so whoever prepared this, they kind of must have seen the proper information, and the exact picture from Wikipedia [on the left] looks like it has been photoshopped [screencap from the show on the right] to make the flowers yellow:
And, by the way – both tansy and yarrow have a fresh, green, bitter smell, kind of like absinthium, but none of them smells like “flowery-flowers”. Even more mess. It might all be mistakes, or random changes, but if it is not, then there’s the question – why would somebody fiddle with this so much and try to mix both of these plants in?
You see, the herbs here have some fun medical use. Tansy repels parasites, and has also been used to end an unwanted pregnancy and bring on menstrual bleeding. Yarrow, on the other hand, has been long known for its blood-clotting effects and therefore used to treat minor wounds, abrasions and burns, and is also known as bad man’s plaything, devil’s nettle, thousand seal, soldier’s woundwort, and seven year’s love.
And if we look at Dean’s current state, and at how the plant was used in a spell that returned him to his Mark-of-Cain-free younger body (and soul, apparently), every single one of these names seems a little bit too meaningful. Most of the common names of the plant relate to bleeding, to something it can stop and heal. With this rule applied to other names, bad man & devil ones are pretty obvious. Then there’s the thousand seal – sounds like something very old and very permanent, burned where it belongs since forever and for forever. And the Mark would be almost like that, but it kind of lacks stability; it’s not a scar, it’s a wound still bleeding, turning Dean from a hunter to a stone-cold killer, making him more of a murderer than a soldier fighthing a good fight – hence the soldier’s woundwort. And even his drinking problem – now, as he is like a fourteen year old, there’s seven years till he can drink again, remember what Sam said? Hell of a detox. Tansy’s anti-parasite properties are a nice addition to this all.
And if I’m reading too much into this, then well, how about a little more too much – tansy essential oil (made of Tanacetum annuum, though, not the most common Tanacetum vulgare) is of a beautiful shade of blue. Darker and much more concentrated than angel’s Grace in a vial, but my mind still wants to see the connection, and we have already seen a fallen (=darker) angel’s powers help revert the effects of Mark of Cain on Dean.
Finally, there’s some additional meaning to what Dean did in the end of the episode. To save people, he decided to come back to his older self, the one affected by the Mark. He burned the witch and also burned the hex bag, which probably contained the herbs. Made it impossible to use the spell again, but what I’m thinking about is – incense. It’s not really medical use, but we’re talking the supernatural here and as far as I know, if you want their magic to work, then burning the herbs is one of the most popular ways to go. This is used for protection, divination and purification of a place or person. And the whole idea of a spell is based on concentrated will of the one who wants to perform it, and balancing the offering and the effect.
When Dean accepted the Mark, he basically sacrificed his humanity to be able to kill Abbadon; the magic worked then. (Kind of like tansy works: you’ll get rid of parasites, but it’s also toxic and you’re probably gonna feel that later. Also, killed worms release toxins of their own.) And now his main goal is getting rid of the Mark, cleansing himself, but he is not going to let other humans be killed to achieve this. We’ve just seen his peace of mind, his chance to be normal again, given up in order to save others; he burned the monster, didn’t let anything more bad happen to Tina, and she got a fresh start that she actually wanted.
There is good coming out of Dean’s actions; the Mark’s still there, but this was already an act of self-sacrifice (which is the Winchester way, as we know, and Dean is a Winchester and it’s his strength, as Charlie had reminded in 10×11). And there is no more powerful offering than this. Maybe it’s the first step, one of those that were supposed to cost Dean dearly, according to Metatron. This thing has to go, then burn it off. Smite me, throw me into the fucking Sun. I know there’s all this river and source yet unexplained symbolism, but I feel all of this – it’s going to end in fire somehow.
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