EVERY TOUCH EVER ☞ 170/?

14.12 Prophet and Loss

14.12 Prophet and Loss

this scene would've been completely unwatchable to me if jared didn't manage to sell half of these tepid ass lines

I see through you when we’re sitting in the dark

(AKA shots of all time)

Supernatural 14.12 Prophet And Loss

#jared #jaredpadalecki #jarpad #weloveyoujaredpadalecki #getwellsoonjared #walker #cwwalker #walkertexasranger #cordell #cordellwalker #cordi #walkerfamily #supernatural spn # spnfamily #sam #sammy #samwinchester #deanforester #austintx #atx #akf

Dean Winchester | Supernatural 14.12

“We don’t hug. I mean, we do, but only if it’s literally the end of the world.” Like it is, every time we lose each other.

[Part I] - [Part II] - [Part III] - [Part IV] - [Part V] - [Part VI]

#SamDeanChallenge

Day 10 : Favorite Hug

@aborddelimpala’s Sam & Dean Graphic Challenge

Okay, Sam. Let’s go home.

14x12 - Prophet and Loss

So I'm sure the show wants us to think they talked to Cas to get the Enochian translated but I choose to believe that Sam knows Enochian (which he does)

SPN 4.13 Continued

Just want get this rant off my chest and get on with my day.

This has been a perfect example of my love/hate relationship with this show. Just a few days ago, I was marinating in love, and now I'm like...this fucking show.

Couple of more scenes and then I'll wrap this up.

A blast from the past, Episode 5.16, "Dark Side of the Moon:"

Dean: You ran away on my watch. I looked everywhere for you. I thought you were dead. And when Dad came home... [Dean shakes his head. He can't even finish the sentence.]

Episode 14.12, "Prophet and Loss:"

Dean: Sometimes when I was away...you know it wasn't 'cause I just ran out, right? Dad would send me away when I really pissed him off.

Sam: Man, I left that behind a long time ago. I had to.

This is what I was talking about when I said there's something "darker" about John than just being complex or flawed. His kids were afraid of him. He was abusive -- emotionally and, I think, physically. That's not some wacky headcanon of mine, that's the show telling me so.

In the 5.16 scene above, Dean literally can't even talk about what John did to him when Sam went missing. Does that sound like he just got a stern dressing-down from the old man? I think John got drunk and slapped him around or at least shoved him around, which is no little thing. Even as an adult Dean is smaller than his father...how old was he when this incident happened? How much more would John have loomed over his son when Dean was sixteen or so?

In the 14.12 scene....really, what is this Dickensian bullshit about John sending Dean away? Have we ever heard about this before? Where the hell was he sending him? And with whom? Did he give him any money? Was he somewhere safe? How old was he? And what the fuck did Dean do that "pissed" John off so much he couldn't stand the sight of his son? From the clip, it sure sounds like it happened more than a few times, and every time, it was so damaging that decades later, it's still eating away at Dean, while Sam has all but blocked it out of his memory.

That isn't John being "complex," it's cruelty. And I'm not making that up in my feverish little fangirl imagination: the writers are telling me this. The actors are showing me this. And yet, just a few episodes later, they're playing the plinky-plinky sentimental music and expecting me to get all mushy about John Winchester and his "I'm proud of you, son," crap, as if it erases what sounds like a life of near-constant intimidation and tyrannical mistreatment. That would be awful no matter what but when you're a Dean Girl like me? And you think about John. Fucking. Winchester. laying an angry hand on that boy who worshipped him? Or "sending him away" to who knows where and for who knows what? Nuh-uh. No way.

See, it's coming back to me, why I stopped watching this show eight years ago. It's the whiplash these writers were constantly dealing out. I know there's been a lot of talk about queerbaiting but honestly, the show was always baiting its audience one way or the other, asking us to believe or feel something, and then believe or feel the opposite a week later. I often thought it was just a sort of careless writing, you know...going for the emotion without putting in the work. But I also think there was something a little cynical there. Like they knew they had this incredibly invested audience and so they could freely manipulate them to keep them hanging on to the bitter end (which was bitter indeed, but I'm not up for talking about that yet).

Anyway, I'm closing in on the end of Season 14 so with luck there will be an episode that makes me all goopy again and I'll be here gushing about how much I looooooove Supernatural. Stupid show. Bye.

EVERY TOUCH EVER ☞ 167/?

14.12 Prophet and Loss

14.12 Prophet and Loss

I absolutely love the juxtaposition of these two shots and the insight they provide into the brothers’ mindsets. Dean is in a really dark place, but he’s still got his legs spread in such a way that he radiates strength. He’s a box. It will take a lot to move him and he won’t easily fall. Sam, on the other hand, is an inverted triangle. Jared is naturally top heavy, but he can and often does stand in a stronger stance (see him facing off against Kip in 14.01). Sam looks as though he could topple at any moment. Dean’s trying to be strong in order to follow through on his plan, but Sam’s falling apart.

Dean and Cas reacting to each other’s touch AKA that trope where a character looks on in awe where their love interest touched them 😍

So I’m still thinking about the angel-coding of Chip Harrington in 14.15, and I haven’t seen anyone else really discussing this yet, but this was both telling and terrifying. By the time Cas goes to the soda shop to confront Sunny-- who he believes to be responsible for the town’s issues as well as what’s happened to Sam, he’s nearing his wit’s end. He’s deeply concerned for Sam, but he’s also effectively alone, the only one who can solve this mystery and save Sam.

The fate of the rest of the town becomes almost irrelevant, secondary to saving Sam from this terrifying loss of identity. Cas can’t get help from anyone else in town, and he can’t reach Dean by phone for assistance or even advice. Not to mention the fact that if he asks Dean to come help, he would drop everything and hurry to his side, but that would put Dean at risk to wind up in the same situation as Sam is. No, Cas must solve this on his own.

He’d been persistent with wanting to solve it before Sam was overcome by the force affecting the townspeople, even when Sam suggested they wait until morning as he was overtaken by the mind control magic. But now, after he’s seen what’s become of Sam, he goes back to the one place it seems most likely that Sam was affected-- the soda shop, where he was given that tempting free milkshake that may have been the enchantment’s entry point, and the woman who served it to him may have been the source of the magic. Not to mention the fact that she was clearly not affected by the magic controlling everyone else in town (she wrote some pretty steamy love letters that probably used words that would cause poor Justin Smith to pass out cold if he couldn’t even bear hearing H-E-double hockey sticks, for example).

Cas is out of patience, there’s the tangible fear that the same fate that became the last Justin Smith could happen to Sam if a cure isn’t found soon, but even just the horror of Sam thinking he’s Justin, and going through life like that at all... well, that’s awful enough. So he’s reached a moment of desperation and goes to confront Sunny, but his assumptions aren’t quite right:

Cas: I think we should talk. Sunny: I, uh-- okay, about what? Cas: About how you’re a witch. Sunny: A witch? Cas: About how you brainwashed my friend, and about how you’ve done something to this entire town. Sunny: I don’t know what you’re talking about. Cas: Oh, yes you do. [he holds up the love letters Sunny wrote to Conrad] You wrote these. You wrote them to Conrad. And between various steamy, erotic musings, you begged him to leave. Why is that? Because you were afraid you’d hurt him? Sunny: You don’t know what you’re talking about. Cas: Okay, then tell me. [Sunny attempts to push her way past Cas to leave, but he catches her by the shoulders and stops her. He turns on the angel mojo, eyes glowing, and holds up a hand] Cas: Tell me, or I’ll rip it from your mind. [Sunny stares at him, open-mouthed, but doesn’t say anything] Cas: Fine. Have it your way Sunny: No, no, please, it’s not me, it’s him! He’s out of control!

Then Chip walks in, flanked by men including Sam, and the truth begins to come out.

What horrifies me, and probably horrifies Cas in retrospect, was the fact he was willing to use his power to strip information from human minds. This was Worst Castiel’s Special Talent, you know? And it’s the thing he did to Donatello that put him in the state they found him in in 14.12. It was such a nice thing to see Donatello back to his cheerfully soulless self again in this episode, as well, but it’s also a reminder that this is a Terrible Thing that Cas can do, and a direct reminder of that promise we know he made to himself that he would never do this to a human without their consent.

But Sam’s life, his very identity, was on the line here. And sure, he could’ve been bluffing about using that power, and Sunny did crack before he needed to and was confessing until they were interrupted by Chip and his goon squad. But if it was a bluff he could’ve just pulled the glowy eyes and threatened anything... he could’ve just said he was an angel of the Lord there to claim retribution and rolled a natural 20 on intimidation, and that would likely be enough to scare anyone into telling them what they wanted to hear. But he threatened her with this very specific thing, that he’d “rip it from your mind.”

This is what his protective drive for Sam has led him to. To be willing to break his oath not to do this to a human.

And that reminds me I wanted to talk a bit more about another line I think gives weight to this:

Chip: [to Cas] But you, why can’t I change you? Cas: Because I’m not human.

He was just using his angel mojo on Sunny-- or was putting on a mojo threat display and preparing to use angel mojo on her. And again, for the second time in five minutes he has the option of pulling the “I’m an angel, you ass” card out. Especially in front of a guy who’s essentially playing god, at least as far as his town goes. It would’ve been an effective line of conversation, you know? But again Cas does not say this.

He just says, “I’m not human.”

What, then, is he? Because “angel” isn’t it. He didn’t even describe himself as an angel in 14.14. It’s Sam who makes the suggestion that Noah can’t see angels, specifically, and Jack that objects to the term being applied to him, and Dean who says, “well, apparently you’re close enough.” Cas says nothing, accepts that Noah can’t see him, avoids the subject of what he is or isn’t, and goes right to practical matters of the plan. Even when they arrive at Noah’s house, he doesn’t guess they’re angels, only that they’re not human. Because that’s accurate. Jack’s a nephilim, not a human. And Cas is... something...

He even uses this phrasing to describe himself and Jack both in 14.14: “Things like us.” Not angels, not even “cosmic beings.” That’s Jack’s term in this conversation.

It’s almost as if Cas is refusing to label himself. He’s definitely not human at the moment. But he also refuses, or at least avoids, the label “angel.” Because he recognizes that it’s not true of him. He doesn’t correct other people applying it to him the way Jack does (because at least Jack knows THAT much is true, and I think he’d definitely reject the label “human” just as strongly, even when he didn’t have any grace).

Which made it even more traumatizing that he was motivated to resort to using what he considers his most terrible power, in a situation where the monster of the piece used his own similar version of mind control power to control an entire town.