Supernatural

I continue to tell myself they couldn’t actually pull off the kind of play I’ve been speculating about (since 4.09 I Know What You Did Last Summer). It’s too big and someone would have figured it out long before I did. Then they put out yet another episode that feeds my fantasies. Either they really are going there or they are keeping things purposely ambiguous enough in order to get someone like me to fall for the ‘crazy’ interpretation.

For the record, I am unspoiled and want to stay that way. My theory for the season  is that we’re being shown the story so exclusively through Dean’s experience that we – along with Dean – don’t realize the unreliability of what we’ve been shown.  I couldn’t swear to the details, but I keep coming back to an incapacitated Dean and a Sam who’s accessing Dean’s subconscious and affecting reality. I tend to shorthand it as Dissociated Dean and Dreamwalking Sam.

It’s how I explain the mixing up and reversals of the boys’ character traits. (Dean went to Stanford; Sam kicks down doors!) It’s not that the show thinks we need two Deans. It’s a side effect of crawling around in each other’s psyches as Sam hangs onto Dean for all he’s worth and refuses to let hell have his brother. It works as an explanation for the uncomfortable incest references as well as the obvious sleep/dream scenes in nearly every episode. It makes Sam’s powering up necessary for him to maintain control of situations when Dean is suicidal. That’s something I am cheering for even while I’m afraid of what its cost will really be for Sam. Most of all, it’s how I explain the lack of Sam point of view. Dean’s not often able to connect to it, so neither are we. Though I felt pretty hopeless after 4.16 On the Head of a Pin, I do see progress toward Dean recovering himself – beyond the surface story.

OK, so what do we get in 4.17 It’s a Terrible Life? Bridges! If there was one this episode, there were twenty. They litter Dean’s office and the lobby. I do realize it is a bit like being pleased to find crosses in a episode set in a church. Still, the impressive part is that the angels found the boys a case at a bridge company. Since it could have been anywhere, I’m perfectly prepared to believe it means something important. How about that it wasn’t just any old bridge company? It was Sandover Bridge and Iron, Inc. Their motto? Building the Dream. I am not kidding. Dreams!

Surely that would be enough to keep me happy. But they go a step further. Could “Sandover” be an accidental choice? I didn’t think so, and google is a tool worth taking a chance on. Turns out there’s an epic poem trilogy, The Changing Light at Sandover, by James Merrill. It records years of messages the author and his partner received via ouija board! There’s a reader’s guide online with enough pages available to give a sense of the book. While it doesn’t really look like something I’ll love, I went ahead and reserved my library’s copy. It’s the reminder of communication across planes of existence that has me practically squirming with anticipation. Why, hello, 2.01 In My Time of Dying! We love you lots and lots! (My goodness, if Sam is doing this, his skills with symbolism have ramped up considerably since the days of glowing trees of grace!)

Another tease for me was Zachariah’s “Dean, Dean, Dean.” We heard it recently from Alastair. But… before that we got it from the Trickster in 2.15 Tall Tales – who I take as a model for creating and manipulating realities.  3.11 Mystery Spot clearly reminds us the show has firmly established the possibility for alternate realities and timelines. I certainly think angels are every bit as powerful as tricksters and djinns. Heck, we’ve already seen Sam with god-like powers while using dreamroot.

As if that weren’t enough (and because I’m speculating), I’ll also point to the t-shirt worn by Sam’s coworker.

It’s gray with wings – reminding me of Ruby’s from 4.09 I Know What You Did Last Summer.

I’m coming to think that Sam’s rather subdued reactions to losses over the season are because he has some awareness that many (most? all?!) of the players in the cases of the week were created with a specific part to play in Dean’s recovery. Sam’s not investing in them as if they were more than temporary from the start. They might not be much more substantial than girls in naughty lingerie hanging on the trickster. What was remarkable to me about 4.15 Death Takes a Holiday was how much of SAM could be seen in Cole and his soccer trophies.

Though we aren’t getting Sam’s experience nearly as much as Dean’s, story bits like Sam beating on the phone when Dean sends Sam away are showing the strain he’s feeling. In the episode, Sam is assigned tech support. His advice over and over is to turn the power off and back on – and it works every time. I can’t help thinking that’s what the angel did for Dean. (I have suspicions that Sam may have agreed to the experiment or been faking his memory wipe.) Dean was shattered at the end of 4.16 On the Head of a Pin and needed the reprieve of a memory implant to something bearable. I think it’s poetry that Dean found his way to becoming a hunter again (nudged a bit by Sam). I don’t think I’m stretching to see that as mentally powering off and back on. I hope we do get a scene of the boys connecting over their returned memories since Sam was shut out and frustrated when we last saw him.

So, where do you see this theory fitting – and not fitting! – with the season we are seeing? Don’t spoil me, but do help me see what else I need to factor in as I continue fine tuning.

(caps, as usual, are from oxoniensis)

Tags: 4.17 Its a Terrible Life, bridges, dreams, speculation