I am late getting around to posting here, but it’s not for lack of love for the episode. I sampled some reactions (which is unusual for me) and jumped in with a little thinking about the episode in yourlibrarian’s livejournal 5.08 meta this weekend. I love that most reactions to the episode have been heavily positive. I’m with those who laughed hard through the fun and appreciated that the ep went to the trouble of tying in and moving the mytharc.

I have gone back and forth and back again about the reveal of the Trickster having always been no less than the archangel Gabriel. Since we met Zachariah, I’ve been prepared to find out he was the Trickster. I heard the Trickster in his “Dean, Dean, Dean” during 4.17 It’s a Terrible Life as he restores Dean’s memories and in the way he spelled out the angels’ plan to Dean in 4.22 Lucifer Rising. So, there’s some satisfaction in finding that there is legitimate overlap between the Trickster and higher up angels.

But, now I don’t know what to think! Part of me took comfort in the idea that I didn’t have to worry about how awful the Supernatural angels were since I’d come to believe they were other than angels. And I still can’t help wondering.  LIES  were such an issue in season four. And just a couple episodes ago we had an episode focused on childhood myths. It certainly has been well established that angels lie as much as (perhaps more than) “Tricksters” or anyone else. Is there any indication that’s stopped? Why do we think he isn’t replacing one lie with another? Is there any firm reason to believe that we’re at a final understanding of what Trickster-Gabriel in truth is? (The Trickster bragging about the hospital set as “homemade” gave me a prickly flash to Dean’s homemade EMF in 1.04 Phantom Traveler. That’s all the closer I want to get to saying the kinds of thoughts nagging at me more and more.)

Even the new sitcom opening theme song references the lies in the Winchesters’ lives.

Town to town, two-lane roads
The family biz, two hunting bros
Living the lie just to get by
As long as we’re moving forward
There’s nothing we can’t do
Together we’ll face the day
You and I won’t run away
When the demons come out to play
Together we’ll face the day

Just how much fun is that song? I get all smiley about the facing the day together and nothing they can’t do. Perfect! That is what I count on in the end. I’m willing for the Winchesters to suffer along the way in the belief they’ll come out of it together and heroes. Oh, and by the way, I’m inordinately fond of the fakey ghost that surprises Sam when he opens the closet. It  reminds me of the pilot and Sam expositioning about being given a .45 when he was nine and scared of the thing in his closet.

One other thing I noticed in those credits was the awkward edit after the boys toss the football and celebrate. In a blink they’ve changed ends of the field as they make their tandem sprawling falls. I haven’t come up with a real explanation, but it sure reminded me of Dean and Anna changing positions in the Impala backseat during the love scene of 4.10 Heaven and Hell.

Oddities to question? Where was Dean’s ring? I noticed it missing when he was in the tv shows, and when looking through screencaps I couldn’t spot it at all. Another strange thing was an unusual version of the flag at the police station. It was not clear since it was hanging draped on an upright pole, but there seemed to be a big white circle on it? The number 4 made a new appearance (along with the stenciled word “ALLIED” on the door to the warehouse (the same place from 4.20 The Rapture’s angel battle royale, I believe). That ‘4′ is showing up consistently enough now that it needs an explanation.

The face transplant, since it was referenced twice, must have been meant to catch our attention. Before the boys figured out that to survive they’d have to play the roles they were in, Dean was a dick to the guy whose wife needed a face transplant. The entire situation was clearly real to the husband and Dean ends up shot in the back. Later, Gabriel includes a reference to a face transplant when he’s explaining his own private witness protection necessitated by running away from home.  I’d take that as a possible indicator of yet more lies actually – dual identity or something?

I don’t have too much to add to the many other discussions of the brilliant hospital, game show, sitcom, commercial, and crime procedural. Except… my speculation goggles of course tint my view. Sam as KITT has me sure we’re seeing a season five allusion to Sam in Dean’s psyche. The Impala is Dean’s emotional barometer, right? But, now we get a bigger version of Dean rooting about in Sam’s being as well. It’s like when astral projecting Dean stuck his arm into astral projecting Sam during 4.15 Death Takes a Holiday! Further, I love that we see the show transforming the ‘real’ motel room into a spiffy sitcom set. As far as I can tell the Trickster could just as easily have plopped them into an entirely new construct (like the hospital, etc.).  Could this be another step toward making understanding something about their actual positions unavoidable? (Recent entry noting repeated set elements in 5.06 I Believe the Children Are Our Future. 5.07 The Curious Case of Dean Winchester had the boys’  motel wallpaper showing up in the brothel’s bedspread, I believe?)

More echoes?  The Trickster as Gabriel has intense reactions to Dean insulting his family. “Shut your cakehole. You don’t know anything about my family. I love my father, my brothers. Love them.”  It’s not unlike Dean objecting to Henriksen’s characterizations of John in 2.12 Nightshifter, is it?  Also, early in the episode we heard Dr. Piccolo accusing Sam of being a brilliant coward. She explains though “It wasn’t your fault,” and “You’re afraid.” Those were both messages directed at Dean over and over in season four!  Dean and Impala-Sam trap the Trickster-Archangel at Centennial Point Wilderness Area which recalls the Pilot’s Centennial Highway (the only other time we’ve seen the Impala possessed was there on the Sylvania Bridge). Beyond that, it had to be a deliberate choice to have Sam escort the “research girl” from the sitcom with a line about, “We’ve got some work to do.” I can practically taste a “bitch” “jerk” exchange on the way.

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