Snowlantern

13x06

Translated:

1: Wait… Dodge City… it’s the cowboy town…

2. Is my life even real today? First I get Cas back and now if I play my cards right we got a perfect excuse to go play cowboys for a few days… no Dean DO NOT imagine getting matching cowboy hats yet just be cool…

3. *feels avalanche of longing pouring off Dean* *is 100% aware of Dean’s sudden and intense desire to roleplay cowboys with him* Outwardly Cas projects: I have only been alive again for like a DAY Dean and you’re already pulling out the weird fetishes. I shouted down a cosmic entity for this. Inwardly Cas is thinking this dumb squishy human and his weird fetishes is EXACTLY why he shouted down a cosmic entity for this.

[Thanks to everyone who watched #Supernatural #WaywardSisters last night. The response has been incredible and the ratings very encouraging. But +3 and +7 ratings will be counted towards a series order decision!]

1. She called Cas a “Douf” (which, love him, he is).

2. She agrees with Dean that ketchup is a vegetable.

3. She prayed to Castiel every night (just like Dean in Purgatory). Cas, you really need to get better at answering prayers!  

4. She survived gods-knows-what in foster homes and group homes. She says Randy was there for her when no one else was, when things got bad, and they got “real bad”. And Randy was a douche-bag.

5. She surivived Randy selling her, underage, as a sex slave to pay his gambling debts. Did I mention Randy was a douche-bag? 

6. She survived seeing Mark-of-Cain Dean’s murder spree (including a very dead Randy) and she worked through her issues with it and learned how to trust Dean again.  

7. Cas took her Dad away from her, he wears her dead Dad’s face, but she learned to trust him too. (She’s a resilient, brave kid). 

8. Angels murdered Claire’s parents and that would seriously skew your perspective on the world. But, Claire is still trying to hunt things and save people. (Cas possessed her Dad, then the archangel who smote Cas sent Jimmy Novak to Heaven. Her mother was killed by a Grigori).

9. She already knew how to pick-pocket, but she learned about credit card hacking and scamming from Sam.

10. She secretly loves the Grumpy Cat Cas got her at “The Hot Topical” for her birthday, just as much as she openly loves the gun Dean (temporarily) gave her.

11. Her Mum died in her arms. No kid should have to go through that. 

12. She wears fierce over-done eye-makeup, which says “F-you”.

13. Sam calls Claire Cas’ family.

14. She sasses Dean good - “Eat me, Hasslehoff!”, “Never seen it, not a fan!”, “You seem pretty old.”

15. She names Jody’s place “a half-way house for Wayward girls”.

16. She asks Dean to keep an eye on Cas, because “He’s been through enough”.

17. Her entire face during Jody’s dinner-table sex-talk.

18. Her struggle to fit in with Jody and Alex, because she feels like an outsider, because she’s got abandonment issues (and why wouldn’t she, her parents both left her).

19. Her instinct for hunting. She was right about monsters at her school, before Jody, Alex, Sam and Dean took it seriously.

20. She can be sulky, stubborn, wayward and even mean (can’t we all) but she’s got a heart of gold underneath it all and she’s trying.

21. She may fight with Alex but she sticks up for her when it counts.

22. She’s a fighter. She’s had it tough, really tough, but she picks herself up and keeps going. 

23. She solemly swears not to hunt like a dumbass.

24. She’s learning to love her found family. And when you’ve been really, truly, badly hurt, loving again is hard. 

I called in some backup. 

Like what the national guard?

It’s been talked about loads, just not recently!

https://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/140052246513/1115-sam-dean-and-parallels

https://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/139991719573/firstdrafted-deanfightswithmonsters

My favourite thing about this post is the absolute truth that:

The thing is, it was almost totally irrelevant that Sam had a crush on Rio.

The thing is, it was almost totally irrelevant that Sam had a crush on Rio.

The thing is, it was almost totally irrelevant that Sam had a crush on Rio.

The thing is, it was almost totally irrelevant that Sam had a crush on Rio.

It doesn’t tell us anything about Sam relevant to the plot or where he is at in the arc of the season.

= The entire point of this was to parallel it to Dean/Gunner.

= Dean is bi.

It’s not really her story though, her life story is more linked to Dean and that makes sense in where it’s led. I would like more though of course, because of the character stuff it shows and leads to, and I really hope we get a good moment where they tell her Cas is dead and what this does to Claire and Dean narratively.

Her story going forward is as a young hunter. So yes, she would be going to Sam and Dean more than Cas because Cas isn’t really linked to hunting, and Claire was only really in his stories when hers was still linked to angels, and I get that it is a dark past for her, baring in mind both her parents were effectively killed by Angels (Raphael killed Jimmy FYI NOT Cas, lets make that clear) and for Claire to move forward as a character, rather than looking back, she should leave anything angel related behind her (except for the sword of course). 

But that doesn’t mean that Cas shouldn’t get brought up, and there really is no reason why he couldn’t be in a Claire episode going forward so long as the storyline made sense (Cas being inserted into a hunting story rather than Claire into an angel story - which is what we have all been wanting for Cas anyway)

Imo the real reason they took Cas away from Claire’s story is to continue the work they’re doing to humanise Cas, to continue the breaking down of the barriers to Cas being human / Destiel etc because we are being consistently told that:

- Jimmy is now in heaven with his soulmate - Cas is in his own body now and it has NOTHING to do with Jimmy apart from it’s appearance being based on his - Cas feels awful guilt towards Jimmy and his family for his death, Amelia’s death and Claire’s abandonment

So all this imo, is great and I love that they addressed it but I can totally understand why they have chosen to try to distance Cas from Claire as many of the GA as some people may just see them interacting and not, like us, actually read the freaking story, but see it and immediately go to “that’s weird cos he looks like her dad” and re-ignite the whole Cas is in Jimmys body thing.

It’s imo a preventative measure to just keep them separated so that we are not reminded that Cas used to be in a vessel, not human etc as we get towards endgame and him being Human in this body and Destiel.

Do I wish personally that they interacted? Hell yes! But I do see this as a potential reason why they didn’t.

Do I think based on everything else in s12 that Dabb has the balls to say fuck it and address it outright though now? Making it blatantly textual that Cas is in his own body and this now has nothing to do with Jimmy? With Claire telling him “you might look like my dad but you’re not him, you’re all… you” and textually forgiving him, saying the words OUT LOUD. Sam making some kind of remark about Cas training with him to keep his body buff when he’s human and Dean falling over sideways? Dean outright telling Cas “this is you now man, maybe it always was you, you never were a real dick Angel you know”. Making it clear that our heroes see Cas as totally separate from Jimmy before Dean starts attacking his mouth and body with his tongue?

Hey! Thanks I hope you are too!

See the thing with the trench coat is that it has become a symbol of Castiels ‘angel uniform’. I don’t think there is anything in canon that specifies that angels have to wear a suit, just that visually for symbolic purposes angels are made to look formal. The same way that demons generally wear suits in later seasons but their suits are much darker colours than the angels outfits. The ongoing dress code of business attire seems to run through both heaven and hell.

Clothing generally is chosen very carefully and specifically in Supernatural (you have probably heard meta writers go on about Dean’s red shirt of bad decisions, or his bisexual plaid (though that is kind of a joke as well as being sort of serious)). With Cas, his outfit also reflects his state throughout the series. 

The original trench coat did start off as Jimmy’s, and whilst we have no real way of knowing if it was Cas who encouraged Jimmy to put on a suit and trench coat, or if it was just a regular outfit for Jimmy, Cas seemed to like it enough to keep it. I always loved the original trench coat as well. Especially after Dean carried it around for so long making it a symbol of Cas’s return and proof that Dean never really let him go: “I always thought you’d come back” he said when he finally returned the coat.

The fact that Cas cleaned the coat and got himself a new suit in season 8 after purgatory proved how much he had grown attached to it. It is only in season 9 once he was human and broke that he had to get rid of it, thus symbolically shedding himself of every part of his angelic being, with nothing left but his humanity. 

When Cas does steal some grace and “angel up” again, the first thing he does is find himself another trench coat. This time one HE chose. But it also became a symbol of the broken angel, the angel with the stolen grace, the angel who went through so much pain at the hands of his brothers and sisters, the angel with the burnt and broken wings. The angel who was lost. This trench coat became the symbol of Cas’s ‘decay’ period. A period of time in the show where he drastically deteriorated in both mental and physical state to the point where, by the end of season 12, even though he was finally starting to realise that he had a home and a family who loved him, and who he loved in return, it still wasn’t enough to stop another creature coming along, and looking inside his vulnerable mind. The fact that he was so desperate for a win, to do something GOOD, that he was manipulated again. “sock puppetted” as Dean said, and whilst Jack may have meant well (just like Ephraim meant well in 9x06) Cas still ended up loosing his life.

The later trench coat therefore from a symbolic perspective, MUST go. All signs point to season 13 as Cas’s “transformation” period. I desperately hope that the later trench coat will be burned in 13x01. Because I want Cas to rise from the ashes anew. So that when he DOES return to the human world, he will find himself something NEW to wear, because then we will KNOW that his transformation arc is something the creators are really thinking about. If they take costume design so seriously, (like the previous costume choices on the show prove they do) there is no excuse to keep Cas in that awful ill fitting trench coat that is a symbol of his mental and physical decay since season 9. 

Having said that though, if Cas really is just waking up in some other realm *cough*the empty*cough*. Then chances are he will imagine himself in that bloody trench coat and for the first few episodes he is in, he will be wearing the coat anyway. 

5.22 | 6.22

Cas brings back Bobby, but he can’t bring back Sam. In the following season, Cas does manage to bring back Sam. And then he consumes so much power that he considers himself God.

In other words: After losing everything, Dean asks Cas if he’s God, and then Cas becomes God.

THE BEDLAM STACKS, ALSO BY NATASHA PULLEY, HAHA

I’m deadly serious – I loved The Bedlam Stacks even MORE than Watchmaker, if that’s possible. the same ‘here’s a weird, random period of history’ setting, the same ‘here are some really niche things you know nothing slash don’t care about’ plot, the same ‘here’s the quietest, sneakiest love story you’ve ever not noticed creeping up on you’ romance. but with more ADVENTURING. and PERIL. and a CAMEO from a certain CLAIRVOYANT, eh eh eh 

Supernatural as questionably homoerotic retro sci-fi pulp novels. Because that’s what we do when we’re bored, apparently.

When Cas is healing Ishim in 12x10, it has a very distinctive blue tint to it.  That is the last instance I can think of off the top of my head where Cas heals someone before he ends up whammied by Jack’s influence.  His grace is untainted at that point.  That episode also gives us another example of angel-human magic hybrid colors in the form of Lily Sunder.

Nice shiny bright yellow!

There is still debate, and I’m not quite convinced on either side, as to whether 12x23 was residue or if it was active mind control.  In a way it doesn’t matter.

There are two main instances of angel mind control/alteration in the show: Naomi’s techniques, and what happens to Cas when he absorbs Hallucifer from Sam.  Naomi’s techniques never had a visible physical after effect to them, and more than that Cas was still aware that things were wrong (on a subconscious level, but still) and he was resisting them.  What happened with Hallucifer had a very distinctive visual effect:

which I know I at least started shrieking over when 12x19 aired.  Cause that kinda looks like red Grace (hmm, Lucifer has red Grace, hmmmm) that Cas is absorbing from Sam (yes it could be the damaged bits of Sam’s soul, I can’t argue either way, I just prefer the headcanon that it’s Lucifer’s grace).

It took Cas time to absorb and process what he absorbed from Sam.  Whether it was soul or grace, it took time to metabolize before he returned to ‘normal’; and just like this season, Cas didn’t want to return to normal.  S7 Cas was stuck with the reality of everything he’d done to Heaven, to Sam, to Dean, and he didn’t want to face it.  S12 Cas is stuck with the reality of… reality, with the fact that he left Lucifer out of the cage, with the responsibility for everything that’s happened with Heaven since Purgatory; the fact that he doesn’t think he’s a good hunter, that he needs to bring back a win for the Winchesters because he’s not good enough on his own someone stab me this is a bloody fanfic.  Jack gave him something to believe in, dangled this other option in front of him.  I’m not sure he would have wanted to fight the mind control, so long as it didn’t actively threaten the Winchesters.

I’ve been on a musical note. I just want to note down my thoughts on this as I have big feelings about Dean’s use of no strings attached sex as both fun but also a clear exposition for his feelings overall and specifically a substitute for Cas since season 4. 

It is something which over the years gets less and less frequent, more and more for the ‘coping’ rather than the fun, culminating in 12x18 so far where it is just so clearly a coping mechanism that I nearly can’t stand it, it’s fantastic, it’s even paralleled to Sam’s breakfast as a poor substitute within SECONDS.

God I love this show. Anyway… so here is the main gist of Night Moves:

We weren’t in love, oh no, far from it We weren’t searchin’ for some pie in the sky summit We were just young and restless and bored (…) I used her, she used me But neither one cared We were gettin’ our share (…) And oh the wonder We felt the lightning And we waited on the thunder Waited on the thunder I awoke last night to the sound of thunder (….) autumn closing in.

End

Of course this is an episode (11x04) where this is completely relevant to Sam of course, with the waitress Piper, but it also is apparently one of Dean’s favourite songs (I love the pie reference even if it’s totally accidental it’s great) and is entirely relevant to the way he uses his own quick flings as a coping mechanism, he uses them, literally, even though of course he is sweet about it, this is how it is.

We felt the lightning and we waited on the thunder, waited on the thunder. I awoke last night to the sound of thunder (….) autumn closing in.

I can’t help but relate the thunder and lightening to announcing the presence of someone who will eventually bring this sex - coping mechanism part of Dean to a close… hmmm…

Oh, also the first song of the episode? Guitar Man by Bread, is all about a guy on the road realising he is doing it because he doesn’t know how to do anything else and it’s what he has always done and it is a sad sad ending for this man…

No one seems to know what it is that makes him go Then the lights begin to flicker and the sound is getting dim The voice begins to falter and the crowds are getting thin But he never seems to notice he’s just got to find another place to play Fade away. Got to play. Fade away…..

So no wonder we then have a whole conversation about the fatalistic ending that Dean used to have, still kinda has but is moving away from, that Sam doesn’t want and never did, that they are BOTH now trying to get away from.

Neither one now wants to be the guitar man.

This is episode 12x18, and it may as well be the last time Dean used a waitress as a coping mechanism. In. His. Life. 

Period. 

Please notice as well the difference BETWEEN THE CASSETTES here:

The “Night moves” cassette tape is not only NICELY COVERED, but also HIDDEN IN A DRAWER.

While THE MIXTAPE OF LOVE is without a cover - completely naked Dean’s true self - and kept in CASTIEL’S LEFT INSIDE POCKET, OVER HIS HEART.

Dean gave Cas his uncovered, naked soul, he couldn’t take it back and Cas didn’t want to give it back.

Cas kept it and put it back next to his heart while he went away to try to protect and save him again from having to do the dirty work.

Because that’s what you do for someone you love, because your “job is to bring them peace not pain”.

Which is what Dean did in 7x17 and 9x06 and Cas did in season 6 and purgatory.

*Waves hello to the old Karen / Bobby canon romantic parallels and walls coming down / waitress metas*

Same, dearie. After feeling like Cas was just sort of standing around in the background for a while during s10 especially, it finally feels like we’re back on track.

And I will never get over how strange it is to talk about how Cas’s character development is “on track” while he’s spending the hellatus lying dead on the ground, but heck this is Supernatural…