#death analysis

So there's something glorious about Sir Pentious' death being INglorious.

It proves that redemption isn't about success.

What makes Sir Pentious worthy of Heaven isn't that he hurt Adam with his final attack. That'd be one thing, but this is Heaven, not Valhalla; great and epic feats of warfare are not what earns one a ticket to the Pearly Gates.

It is the courage and willingness to die to save others- i.e. not the act itself, but the decision to perform the act- that is the mark of glory, that evinces the greatness that makes redemption possible.

And we've even seen him develop this courage in a smaller subplot: look how he started out with talking to Cherri in the last episode!

But eventually he got the gumption to tell Cherri how he felt, in the most dramatic way possible.

Sir Pentious changed, and THAT change is what propelled him to make the decision to risk his life- a risk that became entirely real- to save his friends.

Letting Adam wipe out Sir Pentious, beyond being a good way to really establish just how damn STRONG Adam really was, shows that his redemption wasn't about Sir Pentious' success.

It was about Sir Pentious' heart, who he was inside.

And it was enough to earn him not just Heaven, but to appear there before the Seraphim themselves.

And you can see the heart on his design, on his bowtie!

i haven't read the article so can't respond to it specifically, but i'm with you.

matthew and christina both have always had wildly different interpretation on their characters' relationships than what the writing & even their acting have conveyed on-screen. the amount of repeated and meticulous detail that went into the story to convey that beth and dean were no longer compatible or particularly willing to put in effort towards repairing their relationship was overwhelming, and no interpretation or argument that the writing was either trying to redeem dean as a husband or that the characters were genuinely in love has ever engaged enough with any of the contradictory evidence to be convincing imo. at best, the show suggested that beth and dean had warm and nostalgic feelings for what their relationship once was, and that they had lines in terms of how far they were willing to go in betraying each other—which were largely tied to hurting each other in ways that impacted their children (i.e. she wouldn't let him rot in jail for her crimes, and he wouldn't pursue legal action that would permanently withhold their children from her, but they would both cheat and lie and betray and manipulate each other for their own gains). most of the time, though, beth and dean ignored their problems and pretended they were past them while actively making choices that contradicted that. only a surface-level (mis)reading of beth and dean's charade would support the idea that the audience should root for their relationship.

in terms of s5, nothing in s4 ever pointed towards beth's character developing (or rather, regressing) in a way that suggests she'd be happy staying in her marriage or giving up crime, and in fact, it doubled down on showing that she was becoming more committed to that path and moral downslide. additionally, the season explicitly developed the partnership of beth and rio, both romantically and professionally, which was a deal breaker in beth and dean's relationship. that's not even mentioning that beth/dean endgame contradicts the themes established in season 1 and consistently explored throughout seasons 2, 3, and 4. it would be jarring and strange for them to suddenly switch course at the very end.

John Lennon was a British musician and best known as the lead singer in the rock n’ roll band, “The Beatles”. He was a musical icon in the 60s. Lennon did not have a very stable childhood. His parents had split up, and at age 11, Lennon was diagnosed with an eye disorder which forced him to always wear glasses. John met Paul McCartney in 1957, and they began doing music together.

John Lennon was shot by Mark David Chapman on December 8, 1980. Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono Lennon, were leaving the Dakota in New York, New York. Lennon and Ono were heading into a limousine, and many fans surrounded them, wanting autographs and greeting the couple. One of the “fans” present was Mark David Chapman, who wanted an autograph by Mr. Lennon. Lennon agreed to sign Chapman’s copy of Double Fantasy. Lennon asked Chapman, “is this all you want?” and Chapman supposedly smiled and nodded at Lennon. It is also noted that Chapman had previously had a plan to attempt to murder John Lennon on a previous occasion, but Chapman decided to go home than proceed with the murder. Later, Lennon recognized that Chapman had returned from earlier. Then, Chapman took five shots to John’s back from a Charter Arms .38 Special revolver at a distance of about nine feet. Four out of the five bullets penetrated Lennon’s upper back and shoulder. Lennon began to walk up steps to the security area of the building saying “I’m shot, I’m shot”. Lennon was rushed to emergency in Roosevelt hospital, but he did not survive the gunshot wounds. Lennon was pronounced dead at the hospital at 11:30 that night.

Looking into his natal chart, the assassination is somewhat hidden, but very evident. Firstly, his 8th house cusp of death, is at 29 degrees Scorpio, which is a critical degree. The Lord of his 8th house (Pluto) is present in his 5th house, in Leo. The 5th house rules casual activities and hobbies, along with music, art and literature. Evidently, Lennon was shot after a photo shoot with his wife, Yoko Ono on the same day John was shot by Mark Chapman. They posed in a very artsy picture together earlier on in the day.  Leo, in astrology, rules the upper back, which is where Lennon was shot more than once. It was also noted that 2 of the shots had hit Lennon in the shoulder. Gemini rules the shoulders in astrology. In John Lennon’s chart, Gemini is sitting on his 3rd house cusp, with ruler Mercury, in Scorpio. However, Mercury is not placed in the house of death, but Mercury does make a square to his natal Pluto, the planet associated with death itself. Doctors noted that Lennon had damage to tissue around his heart when he was shot in the left side of his upper back. Leo also rules the heart, and Pluto, his death ruler, is in Leo. 

Evidently, we can see his death occurred during a leisure activity with his wife, involving music, and the physical places Lennon was shot, adds up to medical astrology. Looking at the transits on the day that Lennon died, transiting Uranus was making a tight conjunction to his 8th house cusp. Uranus in the 8th house can indicate sudden and unexpected death. Transiting North Node was also making a square to transiting Chiron on the day of his death. Mark David Chapman’s chart evidently shows he had issues expressing himself properly as well as possible mental illness. His Capricorn moon in the second house, and his Sun in opposition to Saturn. He also had Pluto squaring his sun, which can make someone demonstrate negative tendencies and have difficulty with them. Chapman also has natal Saturn in his 12th house, which can make a person suffer from guilt, and perhaps be an escapist.

John Lennon will always be remembered as a musical icon, and a Beatle. It was very unfortunate how he died. He was only 40 years old.

Well, because Beth doesn't feel the same way about Dean that most of the fandom feels about Dean. She's certainly not in love with him, and on the whole, she's largely indifferent to him, but she's never relished hurting him, and in fact, doing so causes her to feel extreme guilt—and him catching her with Rio in that moment does hurt him.

This is a man that shot Dean in his own home and who his wife went on to have an affair with, one that wasn't just physical, but emotionally deep and significant to her in a way his own affairs weren't to him. One of the casualties of that affair was that the family-owned business that he inherited from his father was seized and lost to him, and after that, Beth lied to him and pretended that Rio wasn't involved in Boland Bubbles. And Dean only discovered that lie while in prison, after being arrested for their crimes.

Then Beth promises Dean that she's working on putting Rio away in order to free Dean—who is, remember, innocent!—and she tells him she does, only a few days later, Dean walks in, and finds his wife sitting down with this same man cooking up their next scheme. In that moment, too, she chooses Rio over Dean, asking Dean to leave.

Dean is a bad husband. He's a bad husband from the start of the show, and he never does grow to be a good one. Part of Dean's badness, though, is emphasized by the way that Beth has been a good and loyal wife to him up until the discovery of the affairs and the lost money. At that point, she becomes a scorned and angry wife, and she throws him out, and it feels like justice to her and the audience because at that point, he's reaping what he himself sowed.

But over time in the series, Beth becomes a pretty bad wife, too. She lies and keeps secrets from him. She uses him for sex that isn't about him, but about the same man with whom she cheated on him. She is dismissive of him, infantalizes him, and really only stays with him for the selfish reason of using him as a crutch for normalcy and a built-in babysitter. By the end of the series, at their best, all she does is placate him. The only moments of true joy they share together are when he's unknowingly done something to serve her business interests with Rio. Their relationship is hollow, their foundation is deeply cracked, and their marriage is only intact because Beth has a fantasy about a normal life which she keeps as a lifeboat to weather the tumultuous storm of her relationship with Rio.

And this moment in the series comes right after Stan tells Beth in 4.09 that she doesn't care about anyone but herself, that she "use[s] whoever [she] can to get whatever [she] want[s]," something we see her reckoning with after she steals the money back from Phoebe's evidence stash and she tells Rio she was, "Just being herself."

She's teary-eyed and upset at the start of 4.10 because she knows she's doing something wrong and treating someone badly—a man she built a family and a life with, a life which she thinks she wants to and goes through the motions to save as they keep talking about how they have a "chance" if they go to Nevada.

At the beginning during s1 when beth had found out about dean cheating and all the mortgages, she stood up to him and called him out asking him for a divorce and that until he brought the cancer lie up ofc, and after she found out about the lie she still stayed with him as if nothing had happened. Further into seasons she had started to stand up to rio whereas with her relationship with dean, she became weak because she apparently forgot about everything he had done to her, like in s4 dean hugs her and kisses her forehead a few times and she seems happy in letting him do so where in fact she should not be letting him near her and feel disgust like any other woman would if their spouse cheated on them multiple times.

And the creators said this show is about women who can do anything, then why are one of them being written like that in terms of their marriage, I wouldn't take that as a positive message? I would like to know what you think?

Well, for one, I very much disagree that Beth forgot about everything that Dean had done to her. When Dean tries to question her about how she was able to purchase the new furniture for the house and Boland Bubbles, Beth swiftly reminds him about how he lost all of their money. And her fight with him in 2.05 illustrates that she didn't forget about Dean's affairs as much as she pretended to forgive him and then compartmentalized that reality as a way to work through the guilt of getting him shot by Rio which—while Dean was a terrible husband—is absolutely not a proportionate response or fair punishment for his behavior. Dean has done nothing to Rio, and the violence he endures at Rio's hand is in lieu of Rio physically harming Beth, but that doesn't mean that Dean deserved it.

Repeatedly, it is shown that Beth stays with Dean not because she forgives him, loves him, or even really respects him—but because of a domino effect result mostly from Rio's actions, not Dean's. After discovering the cancer lie, Beth was prepared to leave Dean, but Beth's anger and rage deflated once she had to seriously confront that his death—the father of her children's death!—might be on her hands. It's not, of course—Dean lives, but he's unable to work and he requires significant care for his recuperation. Yes, he cheated on Beth, but honestly, what kind of person would Beth be in her children's eyes if that was the moment that she threw their father out to fend for himself? Particularly when she was utterly incapable of providing for her family on her own, considering she was out of crime at the time?

Beth and Dean's marriage isn't repaired in any sense at that point, and that's illustrated through the fact that 1) she and Dean sleep in separate rooms, 2) Beth seduces Rio while on a date with Dean, 3) Beth only initiates physical intimacy with Dean to fantasize about Rio, 4) Dean explicitly tells Beth that he never brought a woman home because it would be disrespectful, only for Beth to do just that with Rio, and 5) Beth and Dean decide to amicably split by the end of the season.

Why do they stay together then? Because Rio kidnaps Beth and gives her the choice between going down for his crimes and a murder she never committed or murdering a federal agent, then yells and lunges at her until she shoots to kill. Traumatized, she returns home sobbing and broken and clings to the normalcy of the suburban mundane. Then, when Rio does come back from the dead, Rio withholds her pay and threatens her life. Not exactly the easiest time to pursue a divorce, even though their marriage continues to crack and break and it is abundantly clear Beth doesn't respect Dean in big and small ways. She can't remember what he sells (spas, not hot tubs), she ignores what he wants (not to paint the girls' room), uses him to try and secretly get pregnant, doesn't tell him Rio's back, and then lies to him to create a business with dirty money where Rio (the man she had an affair with and again, who shot him) is a shadow partner.

I personally have always found it compelling, interesting, complex, and realistic that the dynamic that Beth and Dean had long-established, where he was in charge and she was the subservient housewife, was something that was extremely difficult for Beth to break, while Beth felt empowered to stand up to Rio because it 1) usually worked, and 2) he respected her for it. That contrast is a core reason that Beth and Rio's relationship, while toxic, is also fascinating and magnetic. She doesn't have to shrink herself for him. Beth's conflict has always been about who she is and how she's caught between two sides of herself, the mother-slash-wife and the adrenaline-junky criminal. Her inability to stand up to Dean has always been a thematic exploration of the ways that traditional gender dynamics and power distribution in relationships can trap, confine, and stifle women, and that is exacerbated and amplified by Beth's financial desperation and the danger that (usually Rio) poses to her physical safety and life.

The thing is, I don't think the writers ever intended to write the Boland marriage with a positive message. People usually list a slew of evidence contradicting just that while claiming that they do (the same goes for claiming Dean had a redemption arc). But just because Beth doesn't hate Dean the way the audience does doesn't mean that that their relationship is ever depicted as fulfilling, truly warm, or one where Beth is respected, valued, or treated well. In fact, the narrative repeatedly underscores that Dean's continued presence is a mixture of convenience, benign familiarity, and necessary because Beth is quite literally unable to find enough stability to leave him. Although they stay together, they continue to show Dean as a bad husband and a mediocre father, not really a true partner in any sense of the word.

I also quibble with sweeping statements about what "any woman" would do in XYZ scenario, mostly because that's a simplification to the wide variety of women and their scenarios that exist. It also doesn't acknowledge the various reasons that women stay—and many women do stay, whether by choice or by necessity—with men that mistreat them. On top of that, it's actually quite rare that Beth shares any intimacy, whether emotional or physical, with Dean of any kind that's genuine, and I actually don't think that it's necessary that she's depicted never receiving any sort of affection from Dean at all. Dean doesn't deserve Beth's forgiveness or her love or even her acceptance or reciprocation of that affection, but that doesn't mean that Beth deserves to live a life void of it.

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