I’m unspoiled for what is coming after 5.20.

This post’s subtitle is a Winston Churchill quote brought to mind while thinking about the implications of the bit of background we were given on Crowley. In this episode we’re told Crowley is possessing a “moderately successful literary agent out of New York.”  (bolding mine) That’s on top of already introducing the boys to:

  • the comic shop seller of the “Supernatural” book series
  • the protective publisher and fan of the book series
  • the author of the book series, Carver Edlund (Chuck Shirley) — who as ‘prophet’ is more a recorder of revelation with some editing wiggle room
  • the fanfic writer Becky taking liberties with the characters and stories

Let’s not forget:

  • Teen Sam is encouraged by a teacher to become a writer in 4.13 After School Special.
  • Sam poses as the freelance author of a book with the working title “Supernatural” in 4.08 Wishful Thinking.
  • Sam and Dean pose as reporters multiple times – often for the tabloid Weekly World News but also for a religious website in 4.15 Death Takes a Holiday and probably others I’m forgetting.
  • Recent tracking of the horseman Pestilence showing up for the Apocalypse is done with shots of the red, white, and blue US Daily Monitor.
  • Not least, the boys have been told flat out that the Supernatural book series will become known as the Winchester Gospels!
  • Season five brought a recurring emphasis on the brothers playing their roles – with and without scripts in a variety of genre.
  • I don’t think the show ever got explicit about just who is The Monster at the End of This Book so it’s a matter of interpretation at this point. (I lean toward it being Dean though there’s room for it to play out differently.)

What about prior to seasons four and five? Finding cases was often a matter of scouring newspapers. Research routinely involved tracking down and going through medical, legal, religious, and historical documents of record. I loved the coded note-passing in 2.07 The Usual Suspects and would like to see a S5 recall of that!

And always, there is John’s Journal. It was introduced in the pilot and given an enduring explication by Dean in 1.02 Wendigo.

This book. This is dad’s single most valuable possession. Everything he knows about every evil thing is in here. And he’s passed it on to us. I think he wants us to pick up where he left off. You know, saving people, hunting things. The family business.

That journal included coordinates to direct the first move after the brothers leave Palo Alto. In 1.09 Home, Dean comes to a new understanding of the journal’s opening line about “Missouri.” I think that’s not unlike getting recent new layers of information. The journal provided enough evidence for accepting Adam as a brother though it may be more accurate to say it didn’t preclude the possibility of brother Adam.  I’m assuming Sam has current custody of the journal since we didn’t see Dean put it in his suicide box in 5.18 Point of No Return.

Beyond that, the boys deal with cases shaped by outside storytelling forces. S3′s Bedtime Stories has the comatose girl who caused fairy tales read to her by her father to be tragically enacted in the real world. S2′s Tall Tales had the Trickster taking inspiration from the Weekly World News for the lessons he was handing out. Even earlier, the website hellhoundslair.com in s1′s Hell House was a tool the boys attempted planting a story on to shape the beliefs feeding the monster unintentionally brought to life by wall graffiti.

Personally, I had a strong sense that we were watching collaborative storytelling and shared authoring in mid-season four. It was rather like the current ep’s hellhound bit. A hellhound tracks Crowley back to the Winchesters, but after a beat there’s a solution, in this case an even bigger bodyguard hellhound. It’s like the old Fortunately, Unfortunately books I remember.

That would connect to the continuing statements of Castiel and Dean about “making it up” as they go. However much of this speculation is all in my head, there’s been too much of the writer/writing motif for it to be the show simply being clever for cleverness’s sake. I expect at some point these bits and pieces will turn out to be groundwork.

Maybe they are heading for a rewrite/reset of history? Something like Dean calling for a “do-over” in 2.05 Simon Said. The problem is getting one that doesn’t result in a traumatic loop as happened with 3.11 Mystery Spot? Maybe they will have the boys take up the figurative pen and write their way back from the brink? Remember Sam becoming a god in 3.10 Dream a Little Dream of Me? Maybe the gaps in the published novels versus the actual episodes we’ve seen will be important? The last published novel sent Dean to hell, right?

I don’t know if this is where the story will head to resolve the Apocalypse. I can imagine (and dread!) viewers crying foul without crediting that the pieces have been in play since the beginning. (Ohh! Could Bobby’s old-fashioned photograph of the gang in 5.10 Abandon All Hope be part of the “record” that might be manipulated?) I’m still inclined to think we’ve been watching an epic metaphor filled exploration of the boys’ psyches and demons. I am excited to see if and how they can triumph over evil threatening to swallow them. I think the boys gaining control over the story an elegant solution even if it is impossible to perfectly accomplish.

Invent your own mythology or be slave to another man’s. ~William Blake

(If a person were inclined to broaden the topic, it would be easy since I’m not really taking into account the ‘believe it enough and it comes true’ aspect that can show up with or without the written component. And, the time-travel episodes and the ones fleshing out of backstory (as was accomplished with the Brady demon in this ep) are essentially another way to rewrite story events if not endings, aren’t they?)

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