"we're here to help" he does genuinely think that doesn't he? "we both lived through a war, let's not start another" GOD AND "are we making the galaxy better?" AND AND "you know what makes us different from battle droids? we make our own decisions, our own choices" THIS MAN NEVER MISSES DOES HE

Supernatural Season 3 thoughts

At the end of this season I was left thinking maybe I just dont understand the show. Maybe I'm reading it against the grain. Or I dont like what its actually saying and trying really hard to fit it into something else. Its infuriating.

The clear main season challenge is how to save Dean. Underneath that is the worrying question of is Sam still 100% pure Sam.

The opening episode is clever in that it does two very necessary things. The first is it demotes the boys standing again. The show needs them as downtrodden outsiders for the narrative to work, so all that regard we were seeing in s2 is pesky. And it's a slick move to use them opening the cage as a reason for hunters to look down on them. That way we still appreciate them as the audience, but have a convincing reason why they arent held in similar regard by their peers.

The second is necessary thing is the switch from a hunting paradigm into a war one. It's a shift in scale that requires different qualities and strategies and it gives the boys something to struggle with. Episode one achieved that smoothly by having the released demons be different. So we are going to need more than book research to know what to do.

The war footing also changes the moral compass in a way that many viewers see as an inconsistency, but I think actually isnt one. With hunting the idea is to lose no innocent lives. In war, it's about weighing up potential losses. It's a new calculus and the key episodes in this season struggle with it. Jus in Bello and No Rest for the Wicked are both centred on this difficulty and I think in both cases are intended as instances in which the boys get it wrong. That feels like a hard one to call, but I think each time the show is actually saying that by not making the harder, less black and white decision, we end up with a less favourable outcome (more casualties and Dean dies).

In terms of the brothers and their relationship we get to see Dean go uber Dean for the opening episodes. It's fun, but sort of frustrating in a way that's seems intentional because it reflects Sam's frustration with him. It lasts until Sam pleads with him to be his brother again in Fresh Blood. After that we get to see Dean be scared. And both of them trying to deal with the prospect of his death and the options for preventing it.

More subtly we see Sam be scared of losing Dean. We see him trying to prepare for life without him. Trying to be more like Dean. Its ambivalent because we wonder whether what we are seeing is a darker Sam - remember we arent clear on the is Sam ok question. The fact that the spector of a dark Sam is raised by him emulating some of Dean's traits puts the family thing in perspective. Fresh Blood highlights again the weakness of 'anything for my family' as a moral baseline - because everyone is someone's family. The vampire is looking to found family and is mourning his own family. It echoes season 1 in that Dean killed Azazels family. Bedtime Stories shows the need to let go of family. When we arent focused on the Winchesters, Supernatural seems to take care to show that "family above all else' needs to be approached cautiously.

While we are on the subject of moral compasses it's worth noting that this season has several moments considering what the value of life is given that Dean's life is running out. The penultimate episode shows us Dean isnt willing to do anything to stay alive. But Dean's wallowing in pleasure also falls short for him. Lisa is introduced to indicate he wants more than hook ups. Bella introduces the question of whether hunting is about more than vengeance or thrills. Her character is an interesting Dean parallel. They are both joyfully amoral in quite different ways, linked to problematic childhoods, with hellhounds coming to collect. What this highlights is a desire to be and do good in Dean, that Bella lacks.

From a more series perspective what's most interesting is the introduction of a more complicated universe. Demons may come in different flavours, if Ruby is to be believed, and that's still a dilemma at this stage. Alongside that we meet a number of creatures for whom we have sympathy, as well as a human going to great lengths to explain away acts that are undoubtedly evil (the Frankenstein doc who only carves up people cos he needs the parts but it's ok cis he only kills when it's necessary..). The message seems to be that good and evil isnt about humans and non-human. But even when it comes to what you do and why you do it, the lines get tangled up and it's hard to know what's right. More than that, moving onto a war footing, Sam is alert to the need to go beyond the hunting approach. He sees the need to find allies, seek information. He knows its slippery and dangerous, he doesn't trust Ruby (certainly not yet) but he understands that without her he can't make any headway against the newly released demons as he has no way of knowing what they are after. It's a big departure and one that marks him out as a leader in my view. But it makes everything very murky.

So it feels jarring by the end to have Dean falling back into the hunter rules he got from his Father. Dean even calls it a 'black and white' approach. Its Dean's choice how to do this one and Sam rightly backs him. But it's a step back. Just as it's a step back that Dean declares that "the only person who can save me is me" to which Sam is reduced to tacking on a solitary "and me"

So we seem to have left behind the moral of solidarity I took as the point of s2. I was left thinking I have to totally misunderstood this show? But I think the fact that Dean loses and dies is supposed to show us that this approach is not enough. And by the time we get to Swan Song I think that's confirmed.

The solutions in Swan Song are all in the grey area. The message seems to be that its about choice. Sam chooses to try to save the world. Dean chooses to love him through it even when Sam is transformed into something Dean has been trained to hate and to kill. Its emphatically not about brotherly love or bromance in the sense of doing anything for each other. Sam chooses to save the world not for Dean, but because he is responsible for letting Lucifer out and he is the only one who can do it. Note also that its this episode gives us the big line that family doesnt end in blood from Bobby. So it's not that Sam and Dean are brothers that's key here. Nor is the point that they love each other. The point is that they are brotherly in their love for each other in the sense that their love for gives them solidarity and support. They support each other to do the right thing, not anything. Without that Supernatural may be entertaining and/or cool, but it would be vacuous.

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