Supernatural

Goodness gracious! This episode cranked all of my wildest speculations back into high gear. It seems to so obviously PROVE everything that I don’t know how to talk about to anyone who doesn’t see what I see. It has me wishing more than ever for someone else who is unspoiled and who is viewing the story as I am. Please link me to where ever you’ve seen unspoiled conversations along these lines going on!

What else could they be saying by so explicitly making it CANON that the ‘anti-christ’ (protected Sam!) is able to reshape reality by simply believing something. One doesn’t even need to be consciously aware of doing it. I think it’s becoming more certain that Dean IS the Monster at the End of This Book and the two brothers have the godlike power to go off script and create their own story.

It explains the airlift out of the chapel during Lucifer’s escape from hell. Dean had to be wishing to be out of there so hard — We need to be out of here. We can’t be here. Anywhere but here. I’d rather be on a freaking plane than here! And it explains Castiel’s impossible resurrection — We are so screwed. We need angel power on our side if we’re going to get out of this. Imagine when the boys learn to accept and control this ability together. Lucifer and Michael better be on their toes if Dean isn’t restricted to throwing scissors.

The more I think about it, the more I love Sam starting to pick the lock at the child’s house only to have Jesse simply open the door to him. (I like it in the same way as I like having Castiel around but neutralized into an action figure and not affecting the immediate next bit of plot.) Did anyone else get a very Audrey-esque (4.08 Wishful Thinking) feeling from Jesse? I’d believe the two could be siblings. (For that matter, floppy-hired Jimmy might have been played by an older Lucas from 1.03 Dead in the Water.)

Both Jesse and Audrey willed (wished?) the impossible into happening. Both had a matter-of-fact response to the “authorities” who’ve come to help with the crazy in their lives. Do we know if Jesse was aware that something unusual was happening around him?  What other children have opened doors to Sam and Dean? Lucas did when his mother was drowning, I know.

And the stairs!! Audrey led Sam and Dean up stairs to meet T Bear, and in this ep we have the long shot of Jesse ascending the stairs into the camera in order to say goodbye to his parents.

(I’ve also recalled another couple of memorable stair scenes from season three and can’t resist cataloging them now. 3.06 Red Sky at Morning gave us Dean — in a tux — coming down stairs and entering the scene step. by. step. Bela’s breath of surprised appreciation was extremely well played. I never connected with her more than at that moment.

In thinking back, 3.08 A Very Supernatural Christmas also put stairs to good use when they showed the first kid watching between railing balusters while grandpa is taken up the chimney. Later, the Anti-Claus climbs up to the parents’ room and then bumps a blood-stained sack full of DAD all the way down – in front of the curly headed moppet in one of the creepiest scenes ever. I need to watch again to see if the stairs into the pagan gods’ basement were given any prominence. I’m sure there must have been a decorated stair rail on the main floor since everything on that wonderful set was decorated.)

5.06 also has stairs in the flashback. Julia tells the boys about expelling the demon and we see her left at the foot of the stairs by which it escapes. The shot is framed so the stairs are unmistakably prominent.

Julia hasn’t fully recovered in the years between then and the boys finding her now. And she’s still vulnerable to a renewed attack when the demons find a use for her.

With the pink rose teacup and her general looks, I have her pegged as another construct similar to (though less encouraging than) the bartender in 4.19 Jump the Shark. She’s there to articulate enough of a story to allow the boys to make sense of what is happening.  (They couldn’t have stuck one more pink flower on the tooth fairy girl in the episode either.)

Red, White, and Blue! (livejournalist hearseeno’s early S4 meta) Early in their investigation, the boys are using the colors in their ties.

The boys are staying at the Liberty Motor Inn. I’d been looking forward to a themed motel again and was not disappointed! I wish there’d been a clear shot of that oversized flag wall art.

(Given the many issues of blindness on this show, I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to see the boys making the smart move of protecting themselves with goggles!)

There’s a flag accent pillow on Dean’s bed.

Can’t miss the dramatic flag and eagle painting on the wall behind Sam.

There’s a table decoration of flags when Castiel joins the boys at the motel. (The border of horses around the lampshade seemed out of place until I noticed the rows of horses on Jesse’s bedspread.)

There’s a flag lampshade in the shot with all three of them.

I wondered how to make sense of associating each of our guys with that patriotic vibe (given the snark the show is willing to throw at politicians) and was thinking about the ideas of freedom and allegiance. Then, almost without noticing it, I found I was humming the Civil War abolitionist song Battle Hymn of the Republic.  I encourage hitting the link to the wikipedia article (there are tangential references to the author’s sleep and her husband’s work with the blind!), but look at the third verse!!

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:

“As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;

Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,

Since God is marching on.

(I’m a little embarrassed to say this song business is the only part of this entry I feel I’ve truly stretched leaped to get to. Everything else is as solid as the mandroid, I tell you.)

Then, I remembered the flag was also there outside of Jimmy’s house.

And there’s a red, white, and blue mail(?) truck that passes by Jesse’s just before the Impala pulls up. (I feel like we’ve seen this house with its two chimneys before, but it hasn’t come to me where.)

Jesse’s house also had a flag mounted on its overgrown front porch support. So it’s not just a a carry-over of the color scheme. There’s that specific patriotic usage and connotation.

There’s even one of livejournalist hugemind’s angel lamps outside Jesse’s house, too.

It’s like bread crumbs marking a trail. Are the places the same? Sam acknowledges that their motel is in the circle of influence surrounding Jesse’s house.

I didn’t see any furnishings, appliances, or decor in Jesse’s home that were less than twenty-five years old. Sam identifies with Jesse and Dean has Jimmy’s number in just about every way.  Jesse and Jimmy almost have to be projections or constructs or avatars (or somethings!) of Sam and Dean.

Vines are another tie between locations. We see ivy wallpaper in Jimmy’s house (where the babysitter is pranked to death with itching powder)….

…and in Jesse’s birth mother’s house.

Vines seem about to overtake the porch at Jesse’s…

…and are likewise encroaching at his birth mother’s.

We don’t get any actual exterior shots of the motel, but this view seems to show similar greenery through the doorway and sheer curtains.

Remember, too, that the episode ends with the boys in the Impala wishing John had lied more to them. Emergency sirens and flashing blue lights swoop by. Dean particularly is shown with the tri-colored lights…

…so similar to the background lighting in this shot from 4.01 Lazarus Rising.

The business about lies was a big issue throughout season four. They were constant companions to the secrets and responsible for all kinds of hurts, suspicions, and misunderstandings. Recent stories have touched on lies told for the greater good. For example, in 5.04 The End Dean recognizes and objects to his future self lying. I think that is huge and imagine there’s further to go. I suspect the current episode is a big clue that (since Dean’s resurrection?) the boys haven’t necessarily gone anywhere more concrete than they did during the year long Mystery Spot.

Jesse looking out the window: 

We’ve seen similar scenes before – particularly memorable in 4.11 Family Remains, 4.13 After School Special, and 4.15 Death Takes a Holiday.  It’s a lonely and at the same time ominous image in my interpretation. We also saw Callie from 3.05 Bedtime Stories watching at a window. She was outside looking in, but physically (and given her calm demeanor), she’d fit in beautifully with Audrey and Jesse. Beyond that she, while comatose, was responsible for manipulating reality and bringing fairy tales to life. By having the boys use their Page and Plant FBI badges from Bedtime Stories, the show may well be expecting us to remember that story and previously established possibilities.

I admit right now to still not being ready or able to talk much about the idea that our boys might at this point be other than exactly the humans we’ve been watching. Would something like that go back to their earliest history? Just thinking about that makes me ache, and it’s no fun to speculate on.  I’ll wait as long as I can before I make myself focus on this thought. What state of being we understand the boys to be in when the series ends is going to make a big difference.

Oh! On the SLEEP watch front… I think both Sam and Dean were conscious this entire episode! That feels like a triumph. We did get Jimmy being sent to bed and Jesse’s parents sleeping due apparently to Castiel’s influence and Julia asleep in a chair after Jesse chased the demon from her, though.  No mention of the amulet.

Thanks for the screencaps go to oxoniensis.

Tags: 5.06 I Believe the Children Are Our Future, doors, livejournal link, sleep, speculation, stairs, visuals