#spec meta#spnwin spec#spn16 spec
#jack stuff #you made it loud #the empty is full and truly awake #all a god does is right off rival gods and #whatever is there#wants to come here#the empty#the shadow
#people don't believe in me dean #everything they believe in is over there #that's the problem #and you're -part- of that problem
#if jack is like dean at heart you guys just know he would -absolutely- go for the indirect kill
#that is dean's tried and true rationalization after all (and john's too) #his way to sidestep responsibility while manipulating the situation to get the thing done
#you want [us] to want to kill amara because you don't want her to be killed? #so very john winchester and dean winchester of jack to take that route - you know????
I suppose this part is the Curse of John.
i.e. I don't want to do it, I CAN'T do it. So someone else will. Or the bomb will.
As for God!Jack lying about it all, I think of Cas's words from Gimme Shelter DEL scene:
JACK: It's so funny to hear them talk about God. They all think he's some great guy who looks out for them.
CAS: The human version of God has always been better than the truth.
JACK: So, it's okay that we're lying to them?
CAS: This lie, it won't hurt them. It won't... It won't cause them pain or sadness. Sam and Dean taught me that some lies are necessary.
15x15
Not wanting to be lied to is a John trait, a Dean trait, a Jack trait. It's their natural defaults unless you're layering them in a TREMENDOUS amount of stress.
The above is so flying in the face of that.
But anyway, I'm thinking re: above Jack'd probably be cool lying to Dean and treating Dean like a flawed sheep who belongs grazing in the far field, who is in no pain over there because of Jack's lies. Most importantly, Dean doesn't belong in the big, important war effort.
Which would be season 6 for Dean all over again too, if you squint:
And yes, re: above: this line is basically Cas saying he learned from Sam and Dean's the hunting company line of "don't reveal the truth to the civilians." That's it.
But the "Sam and Dean taught me" throughline comes off disingenuous somehow, like very writer-talking-to-the-audience level of Trite, because Cas learned that from Heaven.
It's Cas's whole arc, dealing with Heaven's company lines and disillusionment and disappointment and trying to LIVE in the world and MAKE his own way. For better or for worse.
CAS: What is so worth saving? I see nothing but pain here. I see inside you. I see your guilt, your anger, confusion. In paradise, all is forgiven. You'll be at peace. Even with Sam.
DEAN: You can take your peace... and shove it up your lily-white ass. 'Cause I'll take the pain and the guilt.
4x22
I see the appeal of making Dean and Cas backslide and turns their backs on everything They've Ever Jointly Valued. it's actually kind of a cool idea for them to lose their way, because especially together, they're often the Metaphorical Wayfinders, North Stars who constantly balance Faith and Lost Causes and Safety. It's DEVASTATING for them to go the wrong way. (SEE Dean 15x18: "I just led us into another trap!")
He lost his gut instinct, the ONE thing he's always been able to rely upon! (Like how Mary lamented her loss of will in season 12.)
In their grief, Cas backslides to capital D Destiny, and Dean is sacrificing people for the big R Revenge.
Dean told Cas why didn't you stick to the damn plan, and now Cas is Sticking to Billie's Plan, and Dean is ALSO lip-servicing that Billie Makes Sense and so her Plan Also Makes Sense.
Dean meanwhile is crowing about this idea of a blood-soaked "freedom" because he "doesn't feel alive," or something. Which is, well. It's season 4 Cas really, Dean is become a soldier so embedded in Heaven's machinery he's lost his sense of right and wrong. Again, which results in a loss of his gut instinct.
(ECHO S9-10, his despair at making the wrong call.)
DEAN: [DEAN struggles to say the right thing. He finally just vents] Somebody changed the playbook, man, you know? It's like what -- what -- what's right is wrong and what's wrong is more wrong
9x12
DEAN: Maybe I'm not ready to hunt. [Camera pulls back to show the pain in Deanβs expression and the unshed tears in his eyes.] [brokenly] But I am just trying to do the right thing, man, 'cause I'm so sick and tired of doing the wrong one.
10x04
DEAN: You spineless... soulless son of a bitch. What do you care about dying? You're already dead. We're done.
4x22
The two most anti-plan guys are suddenly tipping their drinks together and all about: Plan, plan, plan.
//////////////////////////////////
But thing is. That's a HUGE theme to bring up so late in the game with JUST a few episodes to go, and so it feels like an about-face and feels more like just killing Dean and Cas off and killing off their values at the same time. Dean killing Death as an answer, and Cas telling Jack he's not a story fall too weakly, and too late.
Reminds me of Tessa's about-face and death in season 9.
And I think that's why my brain CHEWS on season 15 constantly, because shipping aside, it's a huge theme lobbed up there for its most critical characters, but with NO follow-through.
JACK: But I learned from you and my mother and Castiel that... when people have to be their best... they can be. And that's what to believe in.
15x19
Because season 15 CHALLENGED that. It showed up a hideous Dean and Cas. Which is why relaunching with SPNwin was such a good idea, you know? Healing the ugliness of John Winchester and such. I'd have loved to see even a future (past?) Dean or Cas challenge himself (themselves?) on these themes.
A badly written Jack speech can't complete the arc.
But a corrupted Jack absolutely makes sense, especially if it appears like a painless balm.
