(I have now written this out. It’s not the most eloquent and i keep saying stuff is ‘good shit’. Apologies… but it is GOOD SHIT)
First off, I think the lights only showing ‘Mann’ might be a reference to Fritz Haarmann, the serial killer who dismembered, assaulted and mutilated victims– also known as the Vampire of Hanover. Would be a cool little reference if so, but who knows.
DEAN: Look, I know you’re in a dark place
right now OK. I mean, we lost Jack. Mom is… I think about him too, all the time
– but you can’t let it eat you up. Now look, when I was broken up you were
there for me. Well I’m here for you now. And I’m telling you the only way out
of this is through. Now when everything goes to hell, what do we do? We put our
heads down and we do the work. We’ll find jack – we’ll save mom, we will. But
right now, Donna needs our help.
This is great dialogue which looks back to when Dean was ‘broken up’ over Cas, and also points to how Sam feels as though he has let Jack down and let Mary down.
Also this brilliant acting by Jared – this occurs when Dean says that they’ll help look for the killer. Sam obviously doesn’t want to do anything other than try and find Jack and Mary and this unsaid thing is shown brilliantly here, without even a second of dialogue. GOOD SHIT.
Doug/Dean
DOUG: I she gonna be OK? I mean, I love
Donna […] I’ve never seen her like this […] I mean she’s barely talking to me.
And we always talk […] It’s a tough time, I know. But I think she’s hiding
something from me. Anyhoo forget it, it’s probably nothing and I’m probably
just spinning… nothing.
DEAN: Doug, you’re a good guy and you’re
gonna be there for donna. So you know, just trust her. OK?
So this bit of conversation could easily be
Dean saying this to Sam about Cas. Cas has been AWOL for a while and everyone
in the fandom is out here wondering if Asmodeus is calling Dean/Sam with Cas’s
voice. But he could just not be calling. Dean trusts Cas and he might have
heard nothing from him and is simply suffering in silence wondering about what
the fuck is going on, but obviously not sharing his feelings because Dean still
has a way to go with outright admitting his emotions and worries unless truly
prompted or angry. So what Doug is saying could be Dean’s thoughts, but Dean’s
response is also pertinent to the Cas situation. This is Dean saying that
although he hasn’t heard from Cas, he’s just got to trust him.
Hundreds of Monsters
There are hundreds of thousands of monsters
in the world. This is interesting because one would assume that after Sam and
Dean’s efforts after 13 years, plus the Leviathan decimating populations of
monsters that numbers would be lower. This would also make sense because lower
populations of monsters after this time leads to a positive endgame for SPN. It
also would mean that Sam and Dean’s lives aren’t futile. And yet here we get
canon knowledge that there are hundreds of thousands of monsters out ‘there’.
But here lies the interesting question; where is ‘there’? Because if there are
hundreds of thousands in the US, that’s quite a lot and the number of victims
are countless. However, ‘there’ means the world, then hundreds of thousands in
a world of billions insn’t too much. It’s bad, but proportionally it makes
sense.
Evil FBI Agent: See, those freaks that you
and your brother chase – those are just the ones who can’t pass; either because
they’re too mean or they’re too stupid… or both. But most monsters – hell, they
could be your next door neighbour who work a regular job, mown the lawns on a Saturday
– and they need to eat. Which is where I come in.
Well this is some worrying dialogue which
relates to the SPN universe. It matters because it fits in with this idea that
not all monsters are the bad guys, but then it counteracts this theme by
stating that monsters who don’t outright kill and act ‘normally’ are still hurting
and killing people in less obvious ways.
This is a common horror trope though; the
idea that you can’t tell what’s evil in the world. The smiling neighbour who
really wants to kill you (e.g. Open House which is fucking bullshit and awful
and don’t watch it, it’s got the shittest horror script and is pointless, sorry
rant over). But this idea that evil is unseen is super common, and this whole
script used perfectly very chilling horror tropes so it could be included
because of that… maybe.
The evil FBI agent isn’t a monster, and
maybe neither is the camera guy/torturer. This is great because it continues
this idea that humans can be truly evil (think Benders which is my personal top
scary episode which at some point I need to write about). I think this is why
this episode was scarier than most; because it referenced subtly The Benders and
it placed humans as the ones who are evil. Including the theme of a serial
killer also references the human evil in the world.
Yellow Curtains
Just putting the yellow curtains there behind Dean to remind us all of Dean burying Cas and his previous depression, and how Cas’s presence is always there. GOOD SET DESIGN SHIT.
Auction for Sam’s
heart.
Good metaphor. GOOD SHIT. Both plot and dialogue and metaphorical
exposition. Mmhmmmmm. GOOD SHIT. Sam is depressed and has no hope; he has a
heavy heart right now. And the monsters, to quote Moriarty want ‘to tear the
heart out of’ Sam (apologies for the reference to anyone still seething over
that show).
Doug
DONNA: You’re
going to be fine.
DOUG: Fine? I was
a vampire.
This bit of
dialogue was great because it’s so real. In SPN we see so many characters who
get involved in hunting and become the heroes and fight the monsters. But it’s
so great to see a character be truly afraid and not want to get involved. This
isn’t being negative about Doug, it’s just pointing out that it’s brave to say ‘no’
to a group of people who are brave and courgageous in more obvious ways and who
are standing in front of you. I so so connected with Doug at this moment and
loved how these few lines of dialogue exposed the crazy reality of SPN. We as
viewers now expect that when someone is cured of being a vampire of witnesses
some crazy stuff that they’ll pick themselves up and join the fight. So for a
character to experience this and point out that it’s fucking ridiculous for him
to just accept that everything is OK now is so refreshing. This grounds his
character and it grounds the show. It calls bullshit that everyone wants to be
the kind of heroes that Donna, Sam, and Dean and many others are. It says ‘yeh,
actually, that was super intense and it’s brave to walk away and admit that in
fact, it’s not fine.’
DOUG: Maybe you
all can live this life… But I can’t. I just wanna go home.
DONNA: So we’ll
go home.
DOUG: And what? I’m
a cop ‘cause I like helping folks, but… vampires? That’s… I’m not…
DONNA: Doug, I’m sorry I lied to you, but I can’t give this up.
DOUG: I know, Donna. You Kill monsters. You’re a damn hero. But that’s…
that’s not me… I’m sorry. I love you. I’m sorry.
Donna: Doug! Wait!
Sam: Let him go. Donna, when you choose this life, anyone who gets too
close – eventually they get hurt… or worse. So let him go. He’ll be safer that
way.
And then there is this wonderful dialogue. Where Doug tells
Donna that she is a hero and that this life just isn’t for him. He’s not angry
at her or disregards how awesome she is. He tells her, and then he chooses to
walk away. Fuck yes, Doug! I mean, of course it’s heartbraking but I just
really respect Doug. I fucking LOVE Donna and I’m sad for her that this
relationship has either ended or will be forever different, but I’m just so
here for SPN pointing out in a loving and respectful way that just because a
character walks away, that doesn’t mean that he isn’t brave or correct in
making that decision. No one called Doug out. No one got mardy at him for
making that decision. They all accepted it. And accepting Doug and his choice
is GREAT. GOOD SHIT.
THE END
(when I mention the end, I’m not taking about the SPN episode ‘The End’ btw, thought I’d mention that to avoid confusion)
DEAN: A little tough on Donna back there.
SAM: What?
DEAN: Just saying.
SAM: Was I wrong? I mean… when has knowing us ever worked out… for
anyone?
DEAN: Well, I mean we save people, Sam.
SAM: Yeh and we also get people killed, Dean. Kaia for instance. She
helped us. And she died for it.
DEAN: OK, look. I know you’re in some sort of a –
SAM: No, no, no, don’t – don’t… you keep saying I’m in a dark place but I’m
not, Dean! Everything I’m saying is the truth. It’s our lives. And I tried to
pretend it didn’t have to be. I tried to pretend we could have mum aback and
Cas and help Jack – but we can’t. This ends one way for us, dean. It ends
bloody……… It ends bad.
Whooooooaaaaaa. Ending on that line and cutting to black and the credits.
Whooooaaaaaa. So this is set up camera angles-wise in a beautiful way. We see
Sam, cloaked in shadow and shot from above, making him seem small and
powerless. He half-repeats his final line; ‘It ends bloody… It ends bad’ and
then we cut to black and the credits. So this is on immediate analysis set up
as foreshadowing. Placing this final line at the very end is used as
foreshadowing for shit getting bad in the next episode so that when the bad
shit comes everyone’s like ‘well, they did tell us this was coming.’
HOWEVER, is this foreshadowing? It’s set up like that, but that doesn’t
necessarily mean that it is. What is interesting about this line is that this
is what Jared and Jensen have both said that SPN will end. So blatantly saying
this here would be a bit too obvious, right? I mean, saying this and then it
ending bad and bloody is thus predictable. So maybe this is a curve ball? Or
pointing out that this is how viewers, the actors, and the characters think it’s
going to end, and then pulling a 180 on all of us – that would be better says
my forever optimist (but also analytical) soul.
The strange thing about this is that Sam is referencing THE END. Like…
THE END. Which was shocking to me. We’re just past mid-season and season 14
hasn’t been actually officially confirmed (right?) and they’re referencing the
end? This is so shocking because they’re not talking about their deaths or
something more specific, Sam is talking about how ‘this ends’. For them ‘this’
may be their lives, but for us ‘this’ is the end of the show. It works
perfectly with either translation. This line was like Davy was staring into our
souls and maniacally whispering these lines to us to have us shook. “THE END?
THE END? DON’T MENTION THE END! SPN IS NEVER GOING TO END!” say anyone who has
watched or been to a SPN convention over the past decade. The first rule of SPN
fandom is we don’t mention the end. The second is we don’t mention the end.
So why are is the writer talking about the end? Talking about how it’s
going to end bloody? But importantly, why now? This could be purely for
character reasons, in that Sam is evidently very depressed and can see no hope
in the future, but is there more to this? I’m not sure. I’ll have a think about
this some more and please reblog and add thoughts pertaining to why you think
this was mentioned now.
In general, I don’t think this is foreshadowing, but rather pointing out
that this is where the story has been leading us for many seasons, but not the
last. This may be the show pointing massive red arrows to the fact that in
earlier seasons, it was going to end bloody, and the boys knew that. We knew
that. Everyone knew this was gonna be heartbreak and violence before the final
credits. But now? Now I don’t think this is the case. But this old thought
needed to be pointed out so we all can recognise it, and so it can be flipped.
And this brings me back to the dialogue from earlier that there are
hundreds of thousands of monsters who aren’t known to hunters, and who it’s
hard to catch. What does that mean for the end of the show? How do you fight
against unseen terror? This all seems very doom and gloom prophesising.
Not to pour salt into our collective wounds, but to add to that, this is the episode that gave us the line ‘show’s over’. Now this is referring to the show where monsters are watching Sam get torn to pieces. Bidding to get his heart. Betting on the outcome. Bound to end bloody. Am I crazy or is there a direct parallel between the auction show and the Show, i.e. Supernatural? In wich we are the bidders, betting on the outcome, watching our heroes get torn apart week after week, chatting about it on some form of social media… Then Dean kills the orchestrator, the powers that be, someone in an actual position of power, who controls what happens, who claims to fight evil but who actual pulling the strings and rubbing his hands together. Which comes back to a notion of the character killing his creator, which narratively could mean a lot of things, especially in a show that is known for breaking fourth walls and have a ton of stories about, well, stories – think Chuck Shurley or Metatron, and of course The French Mistake. Show’s over. Except it’s not. Not yet. And hell if I’m gonna listen to how Sam and Dean have repeatedly told us it’s ending – even shooting the showrunner to take control in a attempt to keep control on how this is all going to end – bloody, in a blaze of glory. We have power, we can bid, and we can choose to demand a different outcome.
HOLY F*CK! I LOVE THIS! AMAZING! Yes!
To take this amazing avenue of analysis to this scene and run with it; so Sam is the one saying that things will end bloody and that we (the monsters in this metaphor) are watching him and Dean be hurt and tortured every week on screen. His attitude is that this violence is destined to be the outcome of his life. That he will inevitably die and we will watch that happen to him on screen. The writers/creators and directors/camera men and women (i.e. the evil FBI agent and the masked camera man) are orchestrating the show and torturing it’s subjects (Sam and Dean). Sam is fatalistic and assumes this is how it will end. But then Dean comes in and shoots the evil camera man and the Evil FBI agents, therein ceasing the pain him and Sam are going through.
So maybe this is really suggesting that whilst Sam sees his role in this story as someone destined to die on screen, Dean is going to save them both from this narrative. He is physically killing the evil men in this episode, but metaphorically he is killing their narrative of destined fatal violence. So maybe Dean isn’t being fatalistic, but Dean stands for saving them both from on-screen death.
And I LOVE how you say that we have the power to choose and demand an outcome like the monsters.
It’s interesting this whole discussion, because this again brings up the question on SPN of ‘if Sam and Dean can overrule the fate allocated to them by the writers/creators’. Also within this, can Sam and Dean overrule the fate we as viewers allocate to them. All of us, the viewers and the writers/creators watch/write with glee about their pain and suffering and choose their fate, but then in comes Dean demanding his own life and prevailing in gaining his and Sam’s safety.
Perhaps Sam is the viewers/writers who have always and still assume that it will end bad and bloody, but Dean represents those who think the characters deserve more than that. Maybe this is the writers impressing upon Jensen that his old viewpoint that it will end in their deaths can be fought against. I know Jensen is backing away from that now, but he (I think) still recently thought maybe Sam should die and he would live during a panel. Maybe this is the writers telling him that Dean can and should save Sam?
This all fits with this whole episode and its fatalistic attitude just being so out in the open. So obvious. But maybe this is a lesson to us all, that the viewers and creators of the show have been torturing Sam and Dean and we’ve been watching and many obviously assume this is how it will continue and end. But Dean and Sam have agency as characters and deserve to storm in and fight for their safety and their lives…
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