#second glance

Your heart raced as Dean hit the brakes on Baby, as you watched the blue and red lights flash. Dean swung the door open and stepped out without turning the car off. You followed behind him, trying to get him to talk to you.

" Dean...Dean, what's going on? " You asked, your breath shaky.

Right then you saw Sam and Jessica, tears rolling down both of their eyes, as they looked at the car wreck in front of them. You felt your heart skip a beat when you watched as the firemen pulled out a man from the dismembered car. Not any man, but John Winchester. He was barely recognisable. Your eyes instantly darted to Dean, and he just stood there, not moving a muscle. You had no idea what to do or say.

"Dean.. " Sam whispered, trying to break his brother's eyes from watching the white sheet cover their father.

" No, he can't be gone Sammy..What happened? I just talked to him a few hours ago.." He rambled, as he tried to wrap around his head around what was going on. " He was supposed to take the new car for a spin, help me fix er up. There's gotta be something else. "

" Dean... he's gone, he's gone. " Sam said, trying hard to keep his cool for his brother, but you knew looking into his eyes that he was failing.

Without thinking, you grabbed a hold of Dean's hand.

" Dean, I'm. "

Within a second, he pushed your hand away, and turned back to the car.

" Go comfort Sammy, I'm fine. "

You couldn't just let him walk away when you knew he was moments from falling apart. Grabbing a hold of his arm, you turned him to look at you.

" Dean, everything's "

" If you say everything's gonna be okay, I swear to God. I said I was fine Y/N, go away. I don't need your help anymore, the job is done, move on. "

The words hit you like a bullet, but you had to try and remember that it was hurt and loss. He was always the tough guy that dealt with hard things on his own, but you couldn't help the tear that rolled down your cheek as you watched him speed off from the accident.

More To Come!!!!

Could make all the difference

I feel like I picked up on a few things that I didn’t the 1st time around (even a couple of things that they might’ve intended to edit out in post or didn’t catch), but overall, still very confused. It leaves you with more questions than it answers and while no, it doesn’t need to answer all of them, it could’ve answered all of the main ones. Perhaps I’m a bit biased in wanting answers. I just really don’t do theories and having actual facts or concrete evidence mean more to me. Some might consider it boring or a buzzkill, but I’d rather know something’s legit than to grasp aimlessly for straws on a topic and then wind up being completely wrong about it.

Tbh, if I look at everything before the final chapter, it’s actually pretty good. I liked the filming and transitions, the effects and music placement were good, and I can even take some of the offbeat humor for what it is (i.e. The Jims, The Detective at times, etc). Even the bits where Mark dives head first into self-deprecating meta through The Colonel took me aback, as cringey as those moments were to watch. It’s just the ending itself that’s just so…..I dunno. I think Mark and his crew had something with the concept, but there’s something about it that left me feeling like it wasn’t all together.

Maybe one of the reasons why the ending was so bluh and angering for me is because I feel like I got cheated through false advertisement. I was actually expecting a Who-dunit when the 1st video came out and was excited about that since those are fun. A couple of friends I talked to even likened it to Clue at first. But then when I find out that the “mystery” was a red herring, the murder never even mattered, and was supposedly a guise for an origin story to Wilford and who I personally dub Darkiplier 2.0 (because this Dark we’re seeing is of Mark’s creation, not ours), it just feels a little ungratifying. I can accept that it’s not a Who-dunit now, but at the moment, it was a huge let down. I still question whether this was canon or not, but if it was, I’m rejecting it.

Like, shit’s already hit the fan with the murder of Mark goin’ down, but then there’s additional shit joining alongside the still drying shit that’s previously hit with the introduction of the Seer. I’d comment on the romantic connection with Mark, The Colonel, and Mayor Damien (theorized by others in the fandom); but honestly if that’s also true, the whole affair is soap opera levels of ridiculous and it’d be too easy to take pot-shots at it. If anything, she didn’t help at all and her character’s shady as fuck. Affiliations aside, this thing has a lot of questions it never answers and that can’t really be answered properly through theorizing: 

What the fuck happened to Mark’s body and Selene’s (dunno if that’s how her name’s spelled)? 

We don’t know what she did that landed Damien in the Spirit world in the first place when the others went to talk to the Groundskeeper. 

What the fuck was up with the crib in Mark’s room and do we really have time to throw a kid into the mix of this already complicated backstory?

If everyone was supposedly at Mark’s place dubbed “Markiplier Manor”, then why did The Colonel make the comment “I will NOT be called a murderer in my own home!” toward the end of the 2nd video? 

How the hell did Selene know when to show up? If she sensed or “foresaw” that something was wrong, wouldn’t she have also sensed that Mark died?

That shit with the newspaper saying “Safari gone wrong”….I’m gonna put aside theories I’ve heard some people say about a potential kid killed during that and focus on the headline above it. It says “City Mayor is secretly a demon in disguise?”. Is that supposed to be foreshadowing or something to lead us on another theorizing goose-chase for answers? 

The series suggests between The Colonel, Mark, and Damien, one of them “stole” their wife. If it was Mark, I can buy that as a motive for revenge for the Colonel. However, it still fails to mention exactly what else Mark did to fuck over everyone else. 

At the end, Damien suggests while in the spirit world that Mark is somehow in Damien’s body. Damien and Selene seem to be in the character’s body. But who the hell is the character? Because they have the same jacket and shirt as Damien, sans the white flower, tie, handkerchief, and mayoral pin. 

When the image changes in the mirror, is it like a portal of sorts? Does the other person get trapped inside and it’s just Damien and Selene walking around in the character’s body? 

But also, if we’re humoring this and saying Mayor Damien is Darkiplier 2.0 and The Colonel is Wilford Warfstache, how’d Wilford get the warbly accent of his? Because that’s not present in this at all as The Colonel.

And lastly if say it IS canon…..what the fuck’s up with “Markiplier TV” then? If Darkiplier 2.0 truly is the manifestation of Damien’s rage and Selene’s powers (which are also NEVER explained), why the fuck would he be working with Wilford in any manner other than to lull him into a false sense of security and exact revenge on him? He wouldn’t even still have any respect for him after everything that happened despite being friends once and yet in that same video you hear him saying “Look, Wil. I respect you. I always have….” soooo…what’s real here? What’s fake? 

Regardless, it definitely brings the focus back to Wilford and Dark 2.0. Putting this under consideration…..where exactly do they stand with each other? Because it’s kind of a cop-out to say that Dark 2.0 pities Wilford and keeps him alive out of said pity. Once again, if this really is canon, it feels like it takes a lot of the bite out of them as to what was previously established about these two; leaving you in a position to feel sorry for them. But I believe the main reason why the ending felt crappy was that this origin story was completely unnecessary. I felt like it robbed both Wilford Warfstache and Darkiplier 2.0 of an opportunity to be bad guys just for the sake of being bad guys. While villains should have something that makes them relatable to some degree, not EVERY villain or bad guy needs this. People have done evil or shady shit all the time and they don’t always have a sound reason let alone a reason as to why other than they wanted to. 

To me, we didn’t need to know how or why Wilford became who he was. I was perfectly fine with him just existing and willing to take him at face value since he’s such an interesting character to watch…….I know he’s a psychotic, trigger-happy, morally-ambiguous bastard who honestly should come with a warning and leave with a referral to his nearest therapist/psychiatrist ASAP. I also know he’s fucked up despite meaning well MOST of the time, but….that’s what I love about him. I love the pepped-up, cotton candy psycho and his zany charm. 

I can also take Dark 2.0 at face value as being evil and manipulative, too. Somehow, I wish I could say the last part about him, but even with this new info of an origin story, it still makes it hard to like him or have full sympathy for him (though I already have issues with his existence to begin with that I mentioned in my initial reaction about the series). Does it make it understandable? Sure, I can understand his background and why he is the way he is, but it doesn’t justify his actions (or Wilford’s). I suppose I could sum it up as….I see Wilford as more of a redeemable character than Darkiplier 2.0 should there ever BE a chance for redemption later on. But as weird as that is….a part of me kinda thinks that’s the point??? 

Darkiplier 2.0’s never MEANT to be a redeemable person, let alone a LIKEABLE one. If I’m ripping a quote from Mark from a past livestream, he said of Dark: “He’s a social manipulator. He is literally, 100% manipulative. He leads you into this false sense of security, and he wants you to trust him because he wants to take advantage of you.” And while this shit with Who killed Markiplier left me confused as fuck and made me wonder if Mark intended for us to gain further understanding of these characters or garner our sympathy for them through a “tragic backstory”, maybe he just wanted to tell a story….granted, it was one that could’ve been executed better in plot and that I wish wasn’t so convoluted or such a headache to make sense of, but a story nonetheless.