SPN 11.20 Don't Call Me Shurley
SPN 11.20 Don't Call Me Shurley
The trite saying that honesty is the best policy has met with the just criticism that honesty is not policy. The real honest man is honest from conviction of what is right, not from policy.
--Robert E. Lee
Well, we knew it was coming. Capital G God finally shows his elusive face... err, excuse me. Let's call him Chuck. He's been absent for quite a while, but he couldn't stay completely out of the picture forever -- not when the picture is on the brink of being destroyed. Both big and little picture -- all of it.
The ultimate Creator, story teller. Unreliable narrator. There are two kinds of lies and honesty that exist. One that is honest from true conviction, and one that panders to an audience. Lies can also come from the same place. Factual truth carries less weight than conviction of right and wrong.
Metatron: There are two types of memoir. One is honest, the other, not so much. Truth and fairy tale.
So, here we have two unreliable narrators, spinning their stories from their own perspective... and agenda.
Amara: It’s incredible. How it endures, the propaganda. He was so threatened by me, fearful that I would make a more perfect creation than He. So, he exiled me. Virtually erased me.
Amara: I was the beginning and I will be the end. I will be all that there is.
Dean: So, you’re it. That would make you God.
Amara: No, God was the Light. I’m the Dark. (11.09)
Then there is God's side of the story.
Metatron: You weren't alone in the beginning. Your sister was with you.
Chuck: Who cares about her?... This isn't her story. It's mine.
Who cares? Ouch. I believe it is safe to call this a family in name only. Labels affixed to designate relationships with no heart to be seen. The ultimate power struggle that glossed over the existence of Chuck's opposite equal... only this is a being that refuses to be erased.
Metatron: The guy I worked for -- total badass! And yes, he could be a dick. Now, that guy... had some stories to tell. And he has a lot to answer for.
Chuck: Okay, so... what do I do?
Metatron: Hold up a mirror and show us who you are. Warts and all. Write for an audience of one... you.
Chuck demonstrates an ambivalence that makes it hard to get a read on his true feelings and intentions. Contradicting himself repeatedly in small ways.
Metatron: Why did you create life?
Chuck: I was lonely.
Metatron: Your sister wasn't company enough?
Chuck: I am being. She's nothingness. It's not exactly the makings of a fun two-hander, you know?
Metatron: Yeah. But you didn't stop at one archangel or a handful of angels. You created worlds.
Chuck: I was stupid. Naive. I thought if I could show my sister that there was something more than just us, something better than us, then maybe she'd change. Maybe she'd stop... being... her. But... every time I'd build a new world... she'd destroy it.
Metatron: So you and your archangels... locked her away? And you got down to unfettered Creation.
Chuck: Tried to, anyway. But.... this was as close as I got to something as good as or better than me or my sister.
Metatron: The National Park System?
Chuck: Nature. I mean, look at what nature created on its own. What's more, nature's smart enough to know that sometimes, there's no fixing things. Sometimes, you just have to wipe the slate clean.
Metatron: Wipe the slate clean. Sure. Natural selection. Good times. Of course, in your case, that means flood the Earth, but built and stock a boat. Start over fresh on the B-side. If Amara wipes the slate, the slate's destroyed. Everything's destroyed. All your great work... lost forever.
There is a lot being said here. Chuck was admitting his isolation, and how he had tried to reach out to his sister to create some common ground. Literally building metaphorical bridges... only to have them burned down, every single time. Buried within that recounting was the further admission that there was the hope to create "something more than just us, something better than us." Way to bury honesty within an explanation of policy. Chuck's ambitions finally payed off... after he had locked her away. And even that was imperfect, leading to a long history of wiping the slate clean, going to Plan B... and now facing destroying it all, forcing an absolute reboot, the cycle picking up where Amara had left off, repeating itself over again.
No wonder Chuck decided to opt out. It wasn't just about nature, or angels or humans... it was about the futility of it all. The reasons for his ambivalence become more clear. Above and beyond the excuses he trotted out, the denial of responsibility he espoused...
Jan: It's not an infection. She says it's a mirror. She's showing us all the truth.
Dean: Darkness.
Jan: The light was just a lie.
Is Chuck just a liar? Is Amara the one telling the lie because of her own conviction of what the truth must be? Whose mirror shows the truth?
Metatron: What about your responsibility?
Chuck: I took responsibility... by leaving. At a certain point, training wheels got to come off. No one likes a helicopter parent.
Metatron: What about Amara? She's your sister.
Chuck: I took responsibility for her, too. Locked her away -- barely, I might add. And who let her out?
Metatron: Sam and Dean Winchester. But they're trying to fix that.
Chuck: You know I love those guys, but the world would still be spinning with Demon Dean in it. But Sam couldn't have that, though, could he? And so how is Amara being out on me?
Truth in the eye of the beholder. Leaving his angels on their own to fail in His absence, when they were not built to exercise free will. Leaving the problem of Amara to those who directly let her out, when the very reason Sam and Dean are still alive is because he has intervened in the past to save them a couple of times, because he likes them.
He likes them for the very reason they ended up releasing Amara.
Chuck: So, what's it all add up to? It's hard to say. But me, I'd say this was a test... for Sam and Dean. And I think they did all right. Up against good, evil, angels, devils, destiny, and God himself, they made their own choice. They chose family. And, well... isn't that kinda the whole point? (5.22)
He watched Sam and Dean choose each other, family, over all else. He approved of it. So to use their choices to dodge his own responsibility, it makes me wonder. Was it a lie... or was this whole conversation with Metatron another test? A greater test to see if this world, if all his various creations were worth saving, if he could be convinced that they could rise above their own flaws and failures and show the ability to choose something greater than themselves?
Chuck: I am not hiding. I am just done watching my experiments' failures.
Metatron: You mean your failures, Chuck?
It's a little ironic that it wasn't the equivalent of a fellow god but rather a failed god that held the real mirror up to Chuck.
Metatron: Tell me why you abandoned me. Us.
Chuck: Because you disappointed me. You all disappointed me.
Metatron: No, look. I know I'm a disappointment, but you're wrong about humanity. They are your greatest creation because they're better than you are. Yeah, sure, they're weak and they cheat and steal and... destroy and disappoint. But they also give and create and they sing and dance and love. And above all, they never give up! But, you do.
Humans create. They sing and dance. They love. And, as witnessed countless times by Sam and Dean alone... they don't give up. We all heard the echoes of Gabriel's words to Lucifer about the value of humanity. Why in some beings' estimation... Chuck succeeded in creating something "better than" himself and Amara. He and Amara failed each other, creating an all-or-nothing fight for dominion of their very essence.
Sam: I can't fight this. You got to go. You have to get out before you're infected. Go before I hurt you!
Dean: No, I'm not leaving you -- ever! STOP THIS!!!! YOU HEAR ME, YOU DICK!!!! No. No. No. No. No. Hey, hey look at me. Look at me. I'm right here. I'm right here. Okay, it's okay. It's all right. I'm right here. I'm right here.
Sam and Dean shine true with their own conviction - they want what is best for the other, and they will not leave their family alone to be consumed by whatever darkness is trying to take over their family. Echoes of Croatoan and All Hell Breaks Loose, PII... their truth. They already passed this test.
So maybe the real test is for Chuck and Amara. The Light and the Darkness.
Jan: He's not gonna save them. It's all going away... forever. But not you, Dean.
I felt a shudder go down my spine, even though I was expecting something like this. God succeeded in creating something Amara doesn't want to destroy. For the first time ever... she wants to preserve a piece of His creation.
So for all Chuck's sudden embracing of honesty... I have to wonder.
What is his conviction of what is right going to reveal? That will be the real mirror reflecting the God behind the song and story.
If Chuck's closing song choice and decision to reverse the devastation Amara was in the midst of unleashing and reveal himself in Hope Springs is any indication... his memoir would indicate that we are possibly headed towards the end of an era. Whether this is another test of family or sacrifice or love or failure playing out, honest conviction is set to be the ultimate chess piece, the wild card on the board. It may end up being the deciding factor on who is the real player, and who just gets played.
If choosing family is the whole point... what ending is this story heading towards?
The trite saying that honesty is the best policy has met with the just criticism that honesty is not policy. The real honest man is honest from conviction of what is right, not from policy.
--Robert E. Lee
Well, we knew it was coming. Capital G God finally shows his elusive face... err, excuse me. Let's call him Chuck. He's been absent for quite a while, but he couldn't stay completely out of the picture forever -- not when the picture is on the brink of being destroyed. Both big and little picture -- all of it.
The ultimate Creator, story teller. Unreliable narrator. There are two kinds of lies and honesty that exist. One that is honest from true conviction, and one that panders to an audience. Lies can also come from the same place. Factual truth carries less weight than conviction of right and wrong.
Metatron: There are two types of memoir. One is honest, the other, not so much. Truth and fairy tale.
So, here we have two unreliable narrators, spinning their stories from their own perspective... and agenda.
Amara: It’s incredible. How it endures, the propaganda. He was so threatened by me, fearful that I would make a more perfect creation than He. So, he exiled me. Virtually erased me.
Amara: I was the beginning and I will be the end. I will be all that there is.
Dean: So, you’re it. That would make you God.
Amara: No, God was the Light. I’m the Dark. (11.09)
Then there is God's side of the story.
Metatron: You weren't alone in the beginning. Your sister was with you.
Chuck: Who cares about her?... This isn't her story. It's mine.
Who cares? Ouch. I believe it is safe to call this a family in name only. Labels affixed to designate relationships with no heart to be seen. The ultimate power struggle that glossed over the existence of Chuck's opposite equal... only this is a being that refuses to be erased.
Metatron: The guy I worked for -- total badass! And yes, he could be a dick. Now, that guy... had some stories to tell. And he has a lot to answer for.
Chuck: Okay, so... what do I do?
Metatron: Hold up a mirror and show us who you are. Warts and all. Write for an audience of one... you.
Chuck demonstrates an ambivalence that makes it hard to get a read on his true feelings and intentions. Contradicting himself repeatedly in small ways.
Metatron: Why did you create life?
Chuck: I was lonely.
Metatron: Your sister wasn't company enough?
Chuck: I am being. She's nothingness. It's not exactly the makings of a fun two-hander, you know?
Metatron: Yeah. But you didn't stop at one archangel or a handful of angels. You created worlds.
Chuck: I was stupid. Naive. I thought if I could show my sister that there was something more than just us, something better than us, then maybe she'd change. Maybe she'd stop... being... her. But... every time I'd build a new world... she'd destroy it.
Metatron: So you and your archangels... locked her away? And you got down to unfettered Creation.
Chuck: Tried to, anyway. But.... this was as close as I got to something as good as or better than me or my sister.
Metatron: The National Park System?
Chuck: Nature. I mean, look at what nature created on its own. What's more, nature's smart enough to know that sometimes, there's no fixing things. Sometimes, you just have to wipe the slate clean.
Metatron: Wipe the slate clean. Sure. Natural selection. Good times. Of course, in your case, that means flood the Earth, but built and stock a boat. Start over fresh on the B-side. If Amara wipes the slate, the slate's destroyed. Everything's destroyed. All your great work... lost forever.
There is a lot being said here. Chuck was admitting his isolation, and how he had tried to reach out to his sister to create some common ground. Literally building metaphorical bridges... only to have them burned down, every single time. Buried within that recounting was the further admission that there was the hope to create "something more than just us, something better than us." Way to bury honesty within an explanation of policy. Chuck's ambitions finally payed off... after he had locked her away. And even that was imperfect, leading to a long history of wiping the slate clean, going to Plan B... and now facing destroying it all, forcing an absolute reboot, the cycle picking up where Amara had left off, repeating itself over again.
No wonder Chuck decided to opt out. It wasn't just about nature, or angels or humans... it was about the futility of it all. The reasons for his ambivalence become more clear. Above and beyond the excuses he trotted out, the denial of responsibility he espoused...
Jan: It's not an infection. She says it's a mirror. She's showing us all the truth.
Dean: Darkness.
Jan: The light was just a lie.
Is Chuck just a liar? Is Amara the one telling the lie because of her own conviction of what the truth must be? Whose mirror shows the truth?
Metatron: What about your responsibility?
Chuck: I took responsibility... by leaving. At a certain point, training wheels got to come off. No one likes a helicopter parent.
Metatron: What about Amara? She's your sister.
Chuck: I took responsibility for her, too. Locked her away -- barely, I might add. And who let her out?
Metatron: Sam and Dean Winchester. But they're trying to fix that.
Chuck: You know I love those guys, but the world would still be spinning with Demon Dean in it. But Sam couldn't have that, though, could he? And so how is Amara being out on me?
Truth in the eye of the beholder. Leaving his angels on their own to fail in His absence, when they were not built to exercise free will. Leaving the problem of Amara to those who directly let her out, when the very reason Sam and Dean are still alive is because he has intervened in the past to save them a couple of times, because he likes them.
He likes them for the very reason they ended up releasing Amara.
Chuck: So, what's it all add up to? It's hard to say. But me, I'd say this was a test... for Sam and Dean. And I think they did all right. Up against good, evil, angels, devils, destiny, and God himself, they made their own choice. They chose family. And, well... isn't that kinda the whole point? (5.22)
He watched Sam and Dean choose each other, family, over all else. He approved of it. So to use their choices to dodge his own responsibility, it makes me wonder. Was it a lie... or was this whole conversation with Metatron another test? A greater test to see if this world, if all his various creations were worth saving, if he could be convinced that they could rise above their own flaws and failures and show the ability to choose something greater than themselves?
Chuck: I am not hiding. I am just done watching my experiments' failures.
Metatron: You mean your failures, Chuck?
It's a little ironic that it wasn't the equivalent of a fellow god but rather a failed god that held the real mirror up to Chuck.
Metatron: Tell me why you abandoned me. Us.
Chuck: Because you disappointed me. You all disappointed me.
Metatron: No, look. I know I'm a disappointment, but you're wrong about humanity. They are your greatest creation because they're better than you are. Yeah, sure, they're weak and they cheat and steal and... destroy and disappoint. But they also give and create and they sing and dance and love. And above all, they never give up! But, you do.
Humans create. They sing and dance. They love. And, as witnessed countless times by Sam and Dean alone... they don't give up. We all heard the echoes of Gabriel's words to Lucifer about the value of humanity. Why in some beings' estimation... Chuck succeeded in creating something "better than" himself and Amara. He and Amara failed each other, creating an all-or-nothing fight for dominion of their very essence.
Sam: I can't fight this. You got to go. You have to get out before you're infected. Go before I hurt you!
Dean: No, I'm not leaving you -- ever! STOP THIS!!!! YOU HEAR ME, YOU DICK!!!! No. No. No. No. No. Hey, hey look at me. Look at me. I'm right here. I'm right here. Okay, it's okay. It's all right. I'm right here. I'm right here.
Sam and Dean shine true with their own conviction - they want what is best for the other, and they will not leave their family alone to be consumed by whatever darkness is trying to take over their family. Echoes of Croatoan and All Hell Breaks Loose, PII... their truth. They already passed this test.
So maybe the real test is for Chuck and Amara. The Light and the Darkness.
Jan: He's not gonna save them. It's all going away... forever. But not you, Dean.
I felt a shudder go down my spine, even though I was expecting something like this. God succeeded in creating something Amara doesn't want to destroy. For the first time ever... she wants to preserve a piece of His creation.
So for all Chuck's sudden embracing of honesty... I have to wonder.
What is his conviction of what is right going to reveal? That will be the real mirror reflecting the God behind the song and story.
If Chuck's closing song choice and decision to reverse the devastation Amara was in the midst of unleashing and reveal himself in Hope Springs is any indication... his memoir would indicate that we are possibly headed towards the end of an era. Whether this is another test of family or sacrifice or love or failure playing out, honest conviction is set to be the ultimate chess piece, the wild card on the board. It may end up being the deciding factor on who is the real player, and who just gets played.
If choosing family is the whole point... what ending is this story heading towards?