Thoughts on Supernatural Episode 8.23: Sacrifice
What it says on the tin.
Rated: PG-13 for Adult Language
Obviously...
Perhaps the most compelling thing about the Season 8 Finale is Metatron’s reasons for extracting Castiel’s grace. Sure, Metatron needs the Angel Juice to work his Mumbo Jumbo, but he also gives Castiel an instruction:
I want you to live this new life to the fullest. Find a wife; make babies. And when you die and your soul comes to Heaven, find me and tell me your story.
Point the First: (unless being en-souled is a byproduct of having your grace removed) Angels have souls. Angels have souls? For better or for worse, Supernatural’s Angels are different from any other depiction I, at least, have ever seen. Different from the Bible’s symbolically many-headed and many-winged purveyors of divine will. Different, even, than the heroic and anti-heroic figures of Milton’s Paradise Lost.
Angels, traditionally, do not have Free Will, which is not to say Angels do not make choices. It is that Angels are endowed with innate knowledge of God’s Plan, which is not to say they know the Whole Plan, but they are apprised of the consequences of their actions. That’s why Lucifer’s fall is such a Big Deal. He knows, in advance, the major shit he will fuck up; and he does it anyway. He would rather have singularity than gestalt.
Supernatural’s Angels aren’t supposed to have Free Will, but they do. They are essentially super-powered humans who have been around for a hella long time, and God has bid them the Great Peace Out, just as he has with humanity. They have no more access to God’s Will than humans do, except they [some of them] believe they do have insider knowledge of God’s Will. (The same way some people believe that they have insider knowledge of God’s Will: in a way that is very dangerous to the rest of us.)
So if Angels have souls, they are capable of going bad: check. Can we assume that souls are immortal? That means they’re not eternal, existing in all places and times at once. Angels, are then, temporal, and cut off from God’s Will. Humans with super-powers; so Castiel’s fall to just plain human, no super-powers, shouldn’t be that far after all.
Point the Second: tell me your story. Metatron is a scribe; I’m inclined to think of Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivner, who simply “would prefer not to.” Naturally, Metatron assumes that the story has power. Supernatural, the show itself, began as a very conscious permutation of Joseph Campbell’s concept of The Monomyth-the One story which is told over and over-Star Wars, essentially-with Sam in the place of Luke Skywalker, with his sassy, roguish companion Dean (Han Solo) who face various trails with the help of their elderly mentor, Bobby (a.k.a Obi Wan Kenobi.)
These themes are explored over and over in myths and stories throughout history. Why, you ask?
Enter Professor Tolkien. (So, yeah, we’re about to get theological up in here.) People tell these stories over and over, because the story that they want, the one they really need, is the Christian story. Christ’s story. The Resurrection. Because it means we are all okay; and the moment when we’ve already lost is the moment that we are victorious. Things change, serendipitously, eucatastrophically; the unlooked for good.
So, by my reckoning, Metatron has to take Castiel’s grace, because he’s hungry for that story: a new beginning, a rebirth. That doesn’t make Castiel a stand-in for Christ (or at least I hope not,) but I’d like to see that type of story. We have all of these Angels falling to Earth. To counter that, let’s have our Three Musketeers on the road, battling the odds, then suddenly when all seems to be lost, things turn around. John clawing his way out of the pit to wrangle Yellow Eyes-let’s have more of that.
Rated: PG-13 for Adult Language
Obviously...
Perhaps the most compelling thing about the Season 8 Finale is Metatron’s reasons for extracting Castiel’s grace. Sure, Metatron needs the Angel Juice to work his Mumbo Jumbo, but he also gives Castiel an instruction:
I want you to live this new life to the fullest. Find a wife; make babies. And when you die and your soul comes to Heaven, find me and tell me your story.
Point the First: (unless being en-souled is a byproduct of having your grace removed) Angels have souls. Angels have souls? For better or for worse, Supernatural’s Angels are different from any other depiction I, at least, have ever seen. Different from the Bible’s symbolically many-headed and many-winged purveyors of divine will. Different, even, than the heroic and anti-heroic figures of Milton’s Paradise Lost.
Angels, traditionally, do not have Free Will, which is not to say Angels do not make choices. It is that Angels are endowed with innate knowledge of God’s Plan, which is not to say they know the Whole Plan, but they are apprised of the consequences of their actions. That’s why Lucifer’s fall is such a Big Deal. He knows, in advance, the major shit he will fuck up; and he does it anyway. He would rather have singularity than gestalt.
Supernatural’s Angels aren’t supposed to have Free Will, but they do. They are essentially super-powered humans who have been around for a hella long time, and God has bid them the Great Peace Out, just as he has with humanity. They have no more access to God’s Will than humans do, except they [some of them] believe they do have insider knowledge of God’s Will. (The same way some people believe that they have insider knowledge of God’s Will: in a way that is very dangerous to the rest of us.)
So if Angels have souls, they are capable of going bad: check. Can we assume that souls are immortal? That means they’re not eternal, existing in all places and times at once. Angels, are then, temporal, and cut off from God’s Will. Humans with super-powers; so Castiel’s fall to just plain human, no super-powers, shouldn’t be that far after all.
Point the Second: tell me your story. Metatron is a scribe; I’m inclined to think of Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivner, who simply “would prefer not to.” Naturally, Metatron assumes that the story has power. Supernatural, the show itself, began as a very conscious permutation of Joseph Campbell’s concept of The Monomyth-the One story which is told over and over-Star Wars, essentially-with Sam in the place of Luke Skywalker, with his sassy, roguish companion Dean (Han Solo) who face various trails with the help of their elderly mentor, Bobby (a.k.a Obi Wan Kenobi.)
These themes are explored over and over in myths and stories throughout history. Why, you ask?
Enter Professor Tolkien. (So, yeah, we’re about to get theological up in here.) People tell these stories over and over, because the story that they want, the one they really need, is the Christian story. Christ’s story. The Resurrection. Because it means we are all okay; and the moment when we’ve already lost is the moment that we are victorious. Things change, serendipitously, eucatastrophically; the unlooked for good.
So, by my reckoning, Metatron has to take Castiel’s grace, because he’s hungry for that story: a new beginning, a rebirth. That doesn’t make Castiel a stand-in for Christ (or at least I hope not,) but I’d like to see that type of story. We have all of these Angels falling to Earth. To counter that, let’s have our Three Musketeers on the road, battling the odds, then suddenly when all seems to be lost, things turn around. John clawing his way out of the pit to wrangle Yellow Eyes-let’s have more of that.