The scorpion and the frog? On Crowley in SPN 5.20
I've seen comments that this episode was too Crowley-heavy and that Sam and Dean's continuing reliance on outside forces (such as Crowley, Gabe, Bobby, and Cas) for information and strategy makes them look stupid and/or weak, but definitely takes away from their heroism. I have to disagree. I feel this episode in particular as well as the trend toward involving outside forces are meant to show just how far over their heads the Winchesters are in this war. I think it's been one of the important themes of the season, and a continuation of a trend we saw in season 4.
This excellent meta by Faellie on the difference between tactics and strategy as it applies to the Wincesters is relevant now more than ever. Faellie points out that the Winchesters, like the other hunters they encounter, are trained to be excellent at thwarting isolated threats: monsters and ghosts and things that go bump in the night. The Winchesters succeed in the use of tactics in their fight against these isolated threats, but that when it comes to a larger, organized, multi-front threat, they are at a disadvantage: nothing in their training or experience has prepared them for this. In a word, they lack broad, long-term strategy. They win some battles, but they lose the war: see the end of season 4.
Both their tactics and strategies in season 5 have failed to result in their initial goal: killing Lucifer. And merely continuing to say NO to their respective vessels isn't enough. Because Lucifer isn't a simple beast to be put down with the right weapon, nor is Michael. They're something the Winchesters have never fought against, archangels rather than demons. As they found with last season's failure to stop the breaking of the seals, the old tactics simply do not apply to this kind of war. At least in season 4, most of the angelic forces were on their side, fighting some of the (unseen) battles for the seals. Now all of the angels, with the exception of Cas, oppose them. And unlike in season 4, letting Mothra and Godzilla (Lucifer and Michael) fight it out is not an option: too many lives are at stake. Whoever wins that battle, the destruction will be brutal, and if Lucifer wins it means a literal hell on earth.
Two hunters, no matter how good, are not enough to stop this war. As Dean said in 4.16, it's too big.
So while they're often quite good at tactics, the Winchesters tend to fail when it comes to big-picture strategy, tend to look to others for ideas. In 5.19, Gabriel gives the Winchesters a new strategy: containing Lucifer by collecting the Horsemen's rings. This gives Sam and Dean the kind of one-threat-at-a-time goal they're more comfortable with, and has the added benefit of hopefully preventing the Michael vs. Lucifer smackdown; but as Sam points out in 5.20, even if they succeed at obtaining the rings, there's still the problem of getting Lucifer into the trap before they spring it.
So back to 5.20 and why Crowley's actions are important to the theme of the Winchesters being in over their heads. I'm reminded of the fable of the scorpion and the frog... only in this instance the scorpion doesn't sting the frog fatally. Just enough to keep it flailing.
As Crowley sardonically reminds Dean, he is a demon. He's a very canny demon who knows full well that the last demon a Winchester collaborated with got herself ganked. Unlike Ruby, Crowley never attempts to win Sam or Dean's trust in him. He's upfront with the fact that he's acting solely out of his own interests. And I think one of his interests lies in keeping Sam and Dean off balance and focused elsewhere, so they don't have a chance to gank him.
My suspicion is that Crowley knew exactly what he was doing the entire episode, that he was never in much danger himself (if any), and that his intentions were to throw both Sam and Dean off their respective games. To disrupt their already fragile partnership. I'm convinced that was the entire point of the episode.
I think Crowley can be compared to Gabriel in his guise as the Trickster: Gabe also constantly kept Sam and Dean off balance, but he typically had a lesson he was trying to teach them by doing so, a lesson he thought was for their own good. Like Gabriel, Crowley is reluctant to confront Lucifer himself, though ultimately Gabriel was convinced to do so. Like Gabriel, Crowley's tactics keep the Winchesters reeling; but unlike Gabe, Crowley has no larger interest in them beyond what they can do for him.
First Crowley appears out of nowhere in the back seat of the Impala. Maligns Sam as an attack dog, already picking at Sam's temper and at Sam's resentment of Dean's control. Then he peels Dean away from Sam in the most insulting way possible, again riling up Sam's insecurities about his relationship to Dean, and conjuring the spectre of Ruby's betrayal, which between Crowley and Brady shadows the entire episode.
(I've seen Dean's agreement to work with Crowley called equivalent to Sam's collaboration with Ruby, and I very much disagree with this assessment. But that would take another post to explore fully. In short: one episode does not an entire season make. Also there's no deception involved between Sam and Dean in this instance, only disagreement. But I digress.).
Once Crowley has Dean with him, rather than entering the targeted office building as a team, Crowley vanishes and reappears inside the building. This forces Dean to run after him, only to be met with Crowley bloodily finishing off two unpossessed men. As Dean's still reeling from that senseless violence, Crowley shoves him into an elevator and sends him up to Brady, ensuring Dean's already knocked off his foundations when he arrives at Brady's door.
Note the way Dean enters the room, his lack of confidence and swagger. And his flimsy cover story, delivered again with a lack of swagger, followed by his complete inability to adjust quickly when Brady turns the tables on him. Despite having brought the demon-killing knife, Dean is unable to fight off Brady's vicious beating (it appears he barely defends himself at all), and the longer-than-typical shots of him in the elevator afterward only underscore how out of his depth Dean is, further emphasized by the extremely tentative way he exits the elevator, and his shock at Crowley gleefully admitting that using Dean as bait was the plan all along.
Next Crowley admits that there is personal history between Brady and Sam, and I believe he knew exactly how Dean would react to that -- knew Dean would bring Brady back to Sam. Who Crowley then prods a bit more, knowing that Brady will do most of the work of taunting Sam into a rage for him.
(Sidenote: observe Dean's passivity in these scenes. Just sitting on the couch with a beer while Crowley questions Brady, not going after Sam when Sam apparently stalks off to calm down. Getting locked into the bathroom where he can do nothing while Sam confronts Brady. More on this subject in the future.)
What does Crowley do next? By "sticking his neck out" he happens to bring a hell hound back with him, only to conveniently vanish again as it approaches. Oops. And again, my bet is that he knows the Winchester brothers' history with the hell hounds. Crowley lets the "rogue" hound chase Dean just enough to panic him. Then shows up in time to gleefully set his own hound after the one stalking Dean and everyone makes their escape. The timing was just too perfectly choreographed.
Once away, Crowley is the one to hand the brothers Pestilence's supposed location (delivering on his promise, ensuring they have reason to let him go), and tells Brady that he's doing him a favor by leaving Brady to his fate at the hands of Sam and Dean, rather than Lucifer. And then he leaves.
Despite what he says, I think Crowley was in control of everything that happened the entire episode, and everything that happened was to Crowley's benefit.
The fact that he was so successful at unnerving both Sam and Dean, hitting them in very sensitive spots of personal weakness, makes me question what his ultimate goal actually is. Perhaps as I suggested earlier, it was purely self-preservation: ensure they're too distracted to get rid of him after they get what they need from him. I'm not sure at this point whether Crowley is working for Lucifer (his actions in this episode go much further to goad Sam towards Yes than anything Lucifer himself has done), or for himself. I'm leaning towards himself -- I think his grievance with Lucifer is the only honest thing he's told the Winchesters.