Rewatch S7: Reading is Fundamental (7x21)
The introduction of Kevin Tran! Yay! And another Edlund script! (I think it's safe to say that Edlund is my favourite.)
(BTW: I hope everyone in eastern North America makes it through the storm okay).
CELLO! I love the cello.
I like Osric's justification of them using a very Asian stereotype... he has basically said that they use it as a short-hand, so that you immediately think you know the character, and then he busts out of the stereotype and we all learn something or something...he said it much better than I obviously can remember it. The more I do this rewatch, the less eloquent I become. I am probably not even making any sense anymore.
I kind of miss Kevin's old hair. But then, I grew up in an era when shaggy-haired dudes were the attractive ones. Also, it makes him look younger. Though, I think the shorter hair works better for his character in S8.
Channing: "I read one from a kid who got into Cornell. He didn't have any arms or legs or anything. He had to type the whole thing with his mouth. It was beautiful."
Kevin: "I am so screwed."
- So, my sister happens to work at a very prestigious school here in Vancouver, where a lot of foreigners (mostly Asian foreigners) send their children. It's...well, a lot of them DO live up to this stereotype. She told me the most hilarious story today and I really really want to tell you guys, but we decided that it was WAY too "inside information" about an heir to a multi-billion dollar company...but let's just say that the kid has Kevin Tran problems, except every second word out of his mouth is a swear-word and he'd much rather be smoking dope on a beach somewhere and finding work as a plumber. Only, it's hard to feel that sorry for him when you know how much he's worth.
Channing: "You know, no matter what, one day college isn't going to matter anymore"
Kevin: "You're out of your mind."
- Ah, the foreshadowing. :)
I love the thunder crash with the first hammer fall on the hard clay.
I just realized that I think they have Kevin in the same pink shirt in 8x01, though I may be wrong.
Dean: "That sound like somebody saying 'Wait! Don't! Stop!' to you?"
Sam: "Uh, yeah, yeah."
Dean: "Yeah....ah well."
- Haha, I love Dean. I also love how the Winchesters have gotten to a point where ominous warning thunderstorms barely phase them anymore.
I remember flipping out when Kevin got lightening-ed, because I thought it was an angelic possession without consent. But no, it's an awakening of embedded knowledge and purpose....without consent. :P
CASTIEL WAKES! :)
Edgar: "Strange, isn't it? Someone would choose to be named Dick?"
- It's true.
Radio: "Baffled? No I'm not baffled. Frankly, I'm offended. This is not the way weather behaves."
- This is one of my favourite lines in the entire episode - and it's said as background noise. It's BRILLIANT. There are just...so many levels to it. Firstly, the fact that the PhD weather expert is PERSONALLY OFFENDED by the weather not doing what he expected it to...well, that's just hilarious. But, is it weird that I also like it on another level... and that's the level where this PhD guy actually has the gall to think that he should be able to dictate how weather should and should not behave. It just reminds me of society's expectations of how women should and should not behave...or how anyone should and should not behave, and how offended people get when people behave in a way contrary to that. And yes, this is me over-analyzing a comedy line to the extreme...
Sam: "We broke this thing open last night. Every maternity ward within 100 mile radius got slammed. Looks like any woman in the last month of her pregnancy went into labour."
- And this was obviously an inside joke to the fact that Genevieve was expected to go into labour any day. And we know from Osric's interviews that Jared got the call when they were filming the running scene.
Sam: "What?"
Meg: "What up, Bulwinkle? Just a little FYI call, your boy's awake."
- I like how Meg calls him "your boy." (I may not be a shipper, but I'm a huge fan of love and family.)
Hahaha, I love the way Kevin answers his phone with a distressed noise...and the fact that he screams at everything. I really like Kevin.
Dean: "We raced all the way here, but now I don't know. I can't say I'm fired up to see what's left of the guy."
- I like Dean, because I can just imagine his thought process...the whole time he's driving, it would be "gotta get to Cas, gotta get to Cas, I hope Cas is alright" and then once he arrives, it's going to sink in that the last time he was here, he was watching Sam waste away in front of him... and now he's thinking "can I go through that again? There's no one left to save him."
Sam: "Do you think he remembers it all?"
Dean: "That and I'm guessing whatever kind of hell baggage he listed off of your plate. It's not going to be pretty."
- I had actually forgotten that the Winchesters didn't really know how Cas was handling getting his memories back. And then the addition of Sam's madness...yeah, I can see why Dean didn't have much hope.
Dean: "Cas"
Cas: "Hello Dean. Sam."
Sam: "Hey Castiel" *smiles*
- I love how Sam is always happy to see Castiel. It doesn't even make that much logical sense, because Sam and Cas have gone head to head at different points - also, they're really only friends because they both love Dean and therefore have to spend time with each other. Yet, Sam seems to genuinely LIKE Cas, and be EXTREMELY forgiving of any and all mistakes that Castiel has made. Even the ones that directly hurt Sam and left him in flashback-hell and slowly dying for months. I mean, if Cas and Sam were an item, I'd start to worry that Sam was the victim in an abusive relationship...but they aren't. Sam just genuinely seems to want to be Castiel's friend and he seems to genuinely care for him.
Dean: "Well look at you, walking and talking, that's great, right?"
Cas: "Pull my finger."
Dean: "What?"
Cas: "My finger. Pull it."
*Dean pulls his fingers. Cas makes the lights explode and laughs like a dork*
- And this is where Dean starts losing hope that he has his friend back...because this is very un-Cas-like behaviour.
- This is an interesting version of Cas though, just from the perspective of trying to figure out WHAT is going on in his brain. Obviously, Castiel destroyed his entire life by accident, and then he somehow "shifted" Sam's madness to himself.
In my personal headcannon, this means that he has an extremely limited psychic link to the damaged part of Sam's soul...so what MIGHT be happening is that Castiel, an man of ordinarily fairly simplistic emotions, is now being bombarded by a twisted hell-scape of Sam-feelings... and we all know how many emotions SAM has. So, this is Castiel overburdened by emotion and not knowing how to work through it. He's got his guilt and remorse, and then he's got a constant jumble of random crap from Sam's madness.
So, what does this mean? It means that Castiel tries to open with a joke. He wants to make Dean to smile. He wants his friends to love him, because a)he wants to be forgiven, and b)SAM has always just wanted his family to love him and not reject him. Castiel wants everything to be okay again, and maybe the way to get that is to pretend that it already is.
Dean: "Okay, just hang on, Cas, let us catch up to you for a second."
Sam: "So, you're saying you remember who you are. What you are."
Cas: "Yes, of course. Oh! Outside today, in the garden, I followed a honeybee. I saw the route of flowers. It's all right there, the whole plan, there's nothing to add."
- And here we have Cas basically trying to convey that he's LEARNT HIS LESSON: There is nothing to add. I should not have tried to play God. I should have listened to you. The world is as it should be and I should not attempt to change it to my will. I am sorry for ever believing otherwise.
Cas: "Will you look at her. My caretaker. All of that thorny pain. So beautiful."
Meg: "We've been over this. I don't like poetry. Put up or shut-up."
Sam: "Okay, so! Cas, you say you woke up last night..."
- Cas also doesn't want to have any enemies. I don't think he actually particularly cares for Meg when it comes right down to it(sorry Megstiel shippers)... but he's currently trying to see the good in everyone and see everything as God's plan.
- I also like how it clearly makes Meg uncomfortable, because she KNOWS she's a demon and she knows that means she appears as an ugly twisted thing when you can see her true face.
- And I like how Sam is like "oh god, this is awkward" and interrupts...even though he does that goddamn gesture that I hate again. I'm just going to have to get used to this, aren't I?
Cas: "Oh, of course, now I understand."
Sam: "Understand what?"
Cas: "You were the ones. Well, I guess that makes sense."
Dean: "What makes sense?"
Cas: "If someone was going to free the Word from the vault of the earth, it would end up being you two. I love you guys."
*HUGS*
- Firstly, Dean sounds SO BROKEN when he speaks here. You might also notice that a lot of the conversation is being carried by Sam. I think Dean is currently at a loss for words because of how unrecognizable Cas is to him.
- Secondly, I love that Cas is like "of course it would be you guys! You silly boys!" It's kind of adorable.
- Thirdly, Castiel finally gets hugs! Granted, he just takes them, and both Winchesters are like "this is more physical affection than we are used to," but it still counts!
Dean: "Cas, please, we're losing ground out there. We need your help. Can you not see that?"
- This is very important to Dean, and I've been trying to think of a way to put it into words for ten minutes now, but I can't... I'm trying to say something along the lines of... The Cas that Dean knew was a soldier, and Dean was a soldier...so basically, they understood each other on that level for their entire relationship. At all times in the past, Dean has been able to sway Cas to his side by telling Cas that he needs him for a battle. It's not a selfish request though. It's not a matter of Dean USING Cas. It's about who these characters fundamentally are and how they understand each other. They were both made to fight battles, and to ask one another to come to battle for them is actually a declaration of friendship. And to act reluctant to help is to suggest that maybe feelings have changed.
- Now, that all very lofty idea being said... I think this is also about Dean testing Castiel's cognizance He's saying "how aware are? How crazy are you? Do you still understand what's going on around you?" And unfortunately, I think the answer he's getting back is "I am aware, but I don't care any more" which to Dean means "I am aware, I just don't care about you anymore."
Cas: "Hey, this is the handwriting of Metatron."
Sam: "Metatron? Are you saying a transformer wrote that?"
Dean: "That's Megatron."
Sam: "What?"
Dean: "The transformer, that's Megatron."
Sam: "What?"
Cas: "MeTAtron. He's an angel. He's the scribe of God. He took down dictation when the world was being formed."
- I still think that Metatron should be a name that Sam knows by now - but this exchange is still funny. I like the way that Dean tries to whisper-correct him, and Sam is just so flabbergasted that Cas is obviously crazier than he thought...or that transformers are real, honestly, I can't tell. ;P
Dean: "Well what's it say then?"
Cas: "Uhh...tree....horse, fiddler crab. I can't read it. It wasn't meant for angels."
- Haha, I get a kick out of Cas pretending he can make sense of it even for a second.
Meg: "Come on, it's my ass too."
Dean: "Back off"
Meg: "Damn it! Enough of this demons are second class citizens crap."
Cas: "I don't like conflict"
*Cas disappears and the tablet breaks*
Sam: "Uh"
- I like Sam's reaction to the Word of God being shattered.
- Ruby used to do the same thing as Meg does here - call their prejudice against demons "racism" and such...but I mean, they ARE human souls twisted beyond recognition that only leave tragedy and destruction in their path, seemingly feeding off the pain of others. I'm really not seeing them as equals. :P
- Also, Cas is me in an argument. Just so you know, I will never have your back.
Meg: "What are you guys caught up in now? I deserve to know, Sam.... Okay fine. I'll hit the road then, let me just go get my angel."
- I kind of like how Sam just doesn't talk to her at all. Like he's made some rule for himself that he's not allowed to talk to demons anymore. :P
Sam: "Meg! What are you talking about? Stop!"
Meg: "We both call, who do you think Cas will come to? I'm guessing me. You heard him, 'thorny beauty blah blah' - I'm the saint who stayed with him. He owes me. His words."
- I think Meg is bluffing, and or lying. Personally, no matter how much Cas acts as though he likes Meg, I think that in a question of Winchesters vs. Anyone-else, Castiel will ALWAYS choose the Winchesters. Especially considering what happened at the end of S6.
Sam: "What are you going to do with a broken angel? Don't be stupid."
Meg: "I'll take power where I can get it. I've got myself to look out for."
- I think Meg is the one that sees Castiel as a tool to be used...which is unsurprising. I also think that she hasn't fully grasped how broken he is, or how useless he is in this current state. I think she's hoping that he'll be easier to manipulate, when in reality he's more difficult.
- I kind of wish Meg has turned the quesition back around and asked Sam what he and Dean intended to do with a broken angel...because I think the answer would be something along the lines of "love him so much that he gets better again." :P
BTW folks: don't ever leave the Word of God unattended.
Meg: "You're not a demon or a chomper, what the hell are you?"
Kevin "I'm...Kevin Tran. I'm in Advanced Placement. Please don't kill me."
Sam: "I'm not going to kill you."
*Sam tries to take the tablet, Kevin comes with it*
Kevin: "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't know why, but I can't let go of this."
- I just love that this is how Sam first meets Kevin. I mean, it's such a hilarious introduction for a character.
Dean: "You realize you just broke God's word."
- This sentence could have so many meanings - and probably does.
Dean: "It's Sam's thing, isn't it? You taking on his cage-match scars. I'm guessing that's what broke your bank, right?"
Cas: "Well, it took everything to get me here."
Dean: "What are you talking about, man?"
Cas: "Dean, I know you want different answers."
- I think what Cas is trying to say is that EVERYTHING broke his bank. He's trying to say in order for Dean to understand, he has to take into account everything that has happened to Castiel to date. But I think he recognizes that Dean wants to blame the current situation on one thing - he wants to have a spot to direct his anger, and Castiel can't provide him with one.
Dean: "No. I want you to button up your coat and help us take down leviathans. Do you remember what you did?"
*Cas holds up SORRY board game and then lays out the board and pieces*
Cas: "Do you want to go first?"
- I absolutely love this scene, because Cas IS answering Dean. He remembers what he did and he is SORRY, but he recognizes that he isn't solely to blame, and I don't think that's necessarily something that Dean has recognized yet.
- I also think that Castiel needs Dean to acknowledge his own failings in their relationship - Castiel can't very well take ALL the blame, it would be a very unequal relationship if he did. With "Saint Dean" who has to put up with stupid Castiel who isn't worthy of him. If Dean can acknowledge his own mistakes, then Cas can forgive him, and if Cas can forgive Dean, then Dean can hopefully forgive Cas...and I think Cas wants more than anything to be forgiven. I think Dean HAS forgiven him, but not to the point where he'll flat out tell him so, and unfortunately, I think Castiel has to hear it to believe it.
Kevin changed his shirt at some point. I'm not sure when it happened. I wasn't paying attention. Sam and Dean wear the same clothes thoughout this entire episode. Sam has a new coat.
Kevin: "All I know is, this is...it's for me. I'm supposed to keep it."
Meg: "Good luck."
Sam: "But you don't know what it is?" *Kevin shakes his head* "Open it."
- I love this, because Meg gives Sam a look that's clearly a "what are you waiting for, kick the shit out of him and take it" look...but Sam is just goes about it the intelligent way.
Cas: "You know, we weren't sure at first, which monkeys were going to make it. No offense, but I was backing the Neanderthals because they're poetry was amazing. It's in perfect tune with the spheres. But in the end it was you - the homo sapiens sapiens. You guys ate the apple, invented pants."
Dean: "Cas, where can we find this Metatron? Is he still alive?"
Cas: "I'm sorry, I think you have to go back to Start."
- And I love this, because Castiel is TRYING to help Dean, but with the wrong problem. Castiel is trying to explain HIMSELF to Dean. He wants Dean to understand why he did what he did - he wants Dean to understand the "everything" that brought him to this point. Dean, of course, is focused on the other problem - you know, the current, immediate one.
- I also love Cas' line "You guys ate the apple, invented pants" because his phrasing puts a whole different slant on the whole Adam-Eve-Apple story... it's not "you ate the apple, saw your nakedness, and were ashamed", it's "you ate the apple, saw your nakedness, and invented pants." Just think about the two completely different mindsets being expressed there. Personally, I'm MUCH more fond of the second one.
- As a sidenote: I love the way Superntural mixes Judeo-Christian mythology with evolution... the fact that humans "ate the apple" while roaming the earth with neanderthals... it's just kind of cool. On that note, I also love that Castiel liked neanderthal's better. Did you know that neanderthal's may have sung to each other to communicate? Also, they had higher pitched voices and bigger brains. AND, if you are Caucasian (or have Caucasian in your ancestry), then there's a good chance that at least part of your DNA is neanderthal DNA. :)
Dean: "This is important. I think Metatron could stop a lot of bad, do you understand that?"
Cas: "We live in a Sorry universe. It's engineered to create conflict. I mean, why should I prosper from your misfortune. But these are the rules, I didn't make them."
- Cas is cutting to the chase. He's trying to apologize for causing Dean misfortune in order to benefit himself, that he's sorry that they were ever in conflict, but he didn't have control over that part - nor the part that led him to believe that Dean's misfortune would be to Cas' benefit.
Dean: "You made some of them - when you tried to become God, when you cut that hole into that wall."
- And I think this is when Dean realizes the conversation that Castiel is trying to have, and starts arguing HIS side finally. Cas can't blame the universe, because Cas always had a choice and he needs to take responsibility for those choices whether he wants to or not, whether some of them are the universes fault or Dean's fault, he still needs to take responsibility for them.
- I also realized that the first time I heard this line, I thought that "cut that hole into that wall" was cuting the door into purgatory, but now I'm realizing that Dean might be talking about SAM'S wall - because everything is always very personal to Dean. He doesn't care that Lucifer is free, he cares that his brother chose to listen to a demon over him. He doesn't care that leviathans are roaming the earth, he cares that Cas broke Sam. :P
Cas: "Dean. It's your move."
- "Dean, will you forgive me?" is basically what Castiel is saying here. That really the next move in their relationship is Dean's...that Dean has to address what went wrong and decide how they are moving forward, that how they move forward isn't up to Cas at all.
Dean: "FORGET THE DAMN GAME! Forget the game, Cas."
Cas: "I'm sorry, Dean."
Dean: "No, you're playing Sorry."
- And this is the problem between a lot of people who fight. Some people are people of words and some are people of action. Castiel is SAYING he's sorry, he's acting as though he is sorry; but, as my mother says, "what do flowers have to do with it?" If Cas truly his sorry, then he has to show Dean through action. Dean has been trying to show Cas through action that Castiel is forgiven - he's asking him to come to battle alongside them again...but Castiel wants to hear Dean say the words, he wants their communication to improve. Dean, meanwhile, can't understand that Castiel is truly sorry because if he really was, then he would clean up his mess and fix things. Dean won't believe it until he sees it, and Castiel won't believe anything until he hears it.
Sam: "Does it say anything about how to kill them? Because that's kind of been a problem."
- I love Sam.
Dean: "What?"
Cas: "Sam. He's talking to angels."
- I love how HAPPY Castiel is. It's kind of heartbreaking really. Also, the fact that Castiel can tell that Sam is talking to angels, totally supports my theory that Castiel actually has a weird psychic link to Sam, and you can't tell me any differently.
Hester: "A demon whore and a Winchester, again. STEP AWAY FROM THE PROPHET."
Kevin: "Who? Me?"
Hester: "Sole keeper of the Word on earth, we are hear to take you."
Kevin: "What do you mean take?"
Hester: "Kill the demon and her lover."
Meg: "That's not how- We're not."
- I'm not sure who is more offended, Meg or Sam. lol
- Also, "SOLE keeper of the Word..." that answers a question I had about Kevin right there. Again, oddly lucky that he was living in the states. Or maybe prophets are just activated one at a time and they picked the closest one to the Word. Yeah, that makes sense.
Inais: "Castiel"
Cas: "Hi"
Inais: "You're alive."
Hester: "You."
Cas: "Hello Hester."
Hester: "You smote thousands in heaven. Gave a big scary speech and then were gone. WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?"
- I like this, because we see Hester be, for lack of a better word, human. She cracks her "angelness" at the sight of Castiel, because she's angry...but she's not just angry, she's hurt and confused and angry. You really get a sense of who Castiel was to Hester and Inais - he was a role-model and someone they looked up to, and then when he went off the rails, he basically let them down in a way...and Hester is furious about being let down, and Inais isn't furious, he knows there's got to be a good explanation, he still wants to believe that Castiel is someone to be adored.
Inais: "Where have you been?"
Cas: "Oh Inais, Hester. I know you want something. Answers. And I, I wish it could be that - there is still many things that I can teach you. I can offer. Well, perspective! Here, pull my finger. Uh, Meg will get another light and I'll blow it out again, and this time it will be funny and we'll all look back and laugh."
- And this is acted brilliantly by Castiel, because you can see that he LOVES them, but that as soon as he starts talking, he realizes that he's going to let them down. So, what does he do? He tries to make them laugh...he tries to make them happy with the same stupid joke that failed to make Dean and Sam laugh, but THIS time, THIS time it'll work, because it's the only way Castiel currently has of making anyone smile.
- Also, "I know you want something. Answers." I have have the feeling that part of the reason Castiel is staying crazy (because I do think he's using it as a defense mechanism) is partly because he knows that EVERYONE wants something out of him - and they all want conflicting things, things he can't offer. And when everyone wants something and you can't please any of them, what do you do? Well, you could basically be someone that obviously doesn't have anything to offer and someone from whom no one expects anything...a crazy person.
Hester: "You're insane."
Dean: "Hey! Heads up sunshine."
- I think it's also telling that Dean had been there for a while probably. He and Cas had probably run up together...or at least, he hadn't been too far behind Cas. But he chooses to banish the angels as soon as Hester says something rather cutting to Castiel.
Dean: "All angels are blown back to their corners, we've got like three, four hours, tops."
Sam: "Meg where did you get that?"
Meg: "A lot of angels died this year, and-"
Kevin: "WHAT'S HAPPENING?!?! WHAT'S HAPPENING?!?!"
- And this is where Kevin won my heart completely - because he has basically the most honest reaction to our heroes than anyone else has ever had in the history of this show. He flips the fuck out. And I just love how Dean, Sam, and Meg, are all talking like this stuff happens to them everyday, and Kevin is like "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"
Dean: "What is that?"
Sam: "It's uh, Kevin Tran. He's in Advanced Placement."
- This is the second time that someone has asked WHAT Kevin is rather than WHO he is...and I kind of like that, because it says a lot about the Winchesters lives. Dean knows he's not an angel, because the sigil didn't get rid of him, and he wouldn't be freaked out of his mind if he were a demon...and he probably wouldn't be in a ball on Cas' bed in the room with Sam and Meg, if he were just a human bystander...
Kevin: "So leviathans, these monsters are real. And angels, with wing?"
Sam: "Yeah, well, no wings. No anything."
- Well, they do have wings, we just can't see them.
Dean: "No junk! Junkless. So, Kevin, you can read the chicken scratch on the god rock, huh?"
- I often wonder how Dean knows this...but that being said, my theory is that what Dean constantly means by "junkless" is that angels don't have an assigned sex. They're either hermaphroditic or sexless. They tend to take on the gender of whatever vessel is available to them, at least when it comes to the English language, because unfortunately English doesn't have a pronoun for people who are both male and female (or neither male nor female, as the case may be).
Dean: "-that's back in one piece, I see. And you're saying there's a how-to-punch-Dick recipe in there somewhere."
Kevin: "I don't know what you're saying, but it seems to be an In Case of Emergency note...."
- I also love Kevin because he doesn't immediately understand what Dean is saying even though Dean is using Dean-speak and talking about people Kevin doesn't even know.
- I also love the thought that God had to leave "In Case of Emergency" notes scattered around the planet, because...why? He knew that eventually everything would go to shit? He purposefully designed things to go to shit? You know, maybe he did. I remember when I used to play SimCity a lot, and it always got to the point where I had my city and I was racking in the money, and everything was prosperous and beautiful and that's when I'd unleash the floods, fires, riots, giant monsters... :P
Kevin: "...What did they mean by Prophet?"
Dean: "Oh no. Really?"
Sam: "Yeah, yeah, that's what the angels said."
Kevin: "I don't want to be a prophet."
Dean: "No, you don't want to be at all."
- I also love how Dean and Sam are OLD HAT at this. I mean, put yourself in Kevin's shoes and imagine someone saying, "Oh, you're the Gaburioru" and you don't know what that means, but all of a sudden everyone in the room is like "aw crap. Sucks to be you, man." AND YOU STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT IT MEANS.
Hitting the road! Back to the cabin!
Dean: "Great, so now we're kidnappers?"
Meg: "Not if we shut up about it. Why? Who'd we kidnap?"
- I gotta say, I think this is my favourite line from Meg ever. I just love how her first reaction is "not if we shut-up about it," before she even knows what the hell they're talking about. That's the kind of friend that I love to have. You know, the type that you can call up and say "I need you to help me bury a body," and they're just like "I'll get my shovel... wait, who'd you kill?" :P
Cas arrived at a dogtrack in Perth, Australia. I like his description of being surrounded by unhappy dogs. I guess Perth, Australia, is better known than Perth, Scotland...and DEFINITELY better known than Perth, Ontario, Canada. :P
Meg: "Kevin. This is Castiel."
Kevin: "You're one of the angels?"
Castiel touches Kevin's nose: "Boop."
- I have a thing for nose 'boops' okay, so sue me.
Cas: "Meg, are you hurt?"
Meg: "Shut-up."
- This is the thing, Castiel's concern/caring for Meg, actually makes Meg REALLY uncomfortable, and it's kind of hilarious. Part of me wonders if he does it on purpose for that reason.
Dean: "Cas, what happened back there? Who are those guys?"
Cas: "They're from the garrison. MY old garrison. We were assigned to watch the earth. Often it was boring. Your wars are very boring, your sex - repetition. Anyway, I was- I was their captain."
- I love how Castiel is so fondly nostalgic when he says this. Castiel did give up a lot to assist Dean, and part of that was his station in the garrison...and then he probably got it back in S6, only to have to lead the garrison to civil war and ultimately lose them again through his own actions. Castiel HAS fallen a great distance, Hester isn't wrong about that.
- Also, I think this is part of what Castiel was trying to tell Dean earlier - his life was BORING until Dean came into it... and that sounds all very romantic and crap, but I think to Castiel is meant that he had no idea how to deal with Dean, how to deal with free will, because he had lived for centuries with a completely different mindset.
Cas: "...those racing dogs were absolutely miserable. They can only think in ovals."
- I've actually heard this about greyhounds and it makes me so sad...but apparently when you rescue retired greyhounds, they only know how to run in circles - and you have to teach them that they're free to run in straight lines or whichever way they'd like.
- I also wonder if there's a metaphor in here that I'm missing.
Dean: "CAS! Don't make me pull this car over. Why are angels after us?"
Cas: "Are you angry? Why are you angry?"
Dean: "No, I uh...please, can we just stay on target."
- I think this is a problem with the way Dean expresses emotion - and part of the reason that Castiel has such a hard time understanding that he's forgiven. Dean expresses every emotion through anger. And who can blame him - in our society, men aren't allowed to express any emotion except for anger, because anything else is considered "not masculine"...because misogyny hurts everyone. So, Dean is concerned - angry, Dean is sad - angry, Dean is stressed out - angry, Dean is confused as to why angels are after them - angry. And this was what drove Castiel and Dean apart in S6, because all Castiel ever saw was "Dean is angry at me" rather than "Dean is very concerned that I am on the wrong path, and it's making him sad and worried, because he loves me very much."
Cas: "...if the word of God is revealed. A keeper of the God will awaken. Like this hot potato right here." *pokes Kevin's nose*
Kevin: "Please stop that."
- I'd want to poke Kevin's nose too. Also, I think Castiel has a thing for prophets. He was very fanboy around Chuck too. It's probably ingrained in angels to have an automatic fondness for prophets.
Cas: "If you want the Word. You're going to have to duck Hester and her soldiers."
Sam: "You're in our corner, right Cas?"
Cas: "I don't fight anymore. I watch the bees."
- I think Cas is taking himself out of the fight because he doesn't trust himself anymore. He made a grievous error and who's to say he won't do so again?
- I also think that, like I said before, this is hugely distressing to Dean, because he and Cas' relationship is based around them relating as soldiers.
Kevin: "This looks like a sex torture dungeon. Is this a sex torture dungeon?"
Dean: "No, this is not a sex torture - get over here, sit down and read, would you." *waving large curved blade around.*
- I love little things like this, when we see Dean from an outsider's point of view... because Dean is trying to reassure Kevin WHILE WAVING WEAPONS AROUND. It's just kind of hilarious.
*Sam looks at his hand* (wrong one though, I think)
Cas: "You seem troubled. Though, that is a primary aspect of your personality, so I sometimes ignore it."
- I love this line.
Sam: "Okay, um, right now I'm just wondering about you?"
Cas: "What about me? You're worried about the burden I lifted from you."
Sam: "I think I was done for. Do you see Lucifer?"
- Sam's personal guilt knows no bounds really, and this is a good example about how emotions defy logic - and that's always important to remember in Supernatural. Because it's Cas' fault that Sam went crazy, it was Cas' choice to fix it by making HIMSELF crazy...and yet Sam feels like it's SAM'S fault that Cas is crazy. Like that burden was his to bare alone and no one elses. And partially, he does have a point... because being crazy DID make Sam, for the first time, feel like he had paid his debt to society.
Cas: "I did at first. That was a projection of yours, I think - sort of an aftertaste. Now, I more see...everything. It's funny, I was done for to, the weight of all my mistakes - all those lives and souls lost, I was...I was lost, until I took on your pain. It's strange to think that helped, but-"
- And this is the interesting thing, because now CAS feels unburdened. Like, just because he's taken Sam's burden, that somehow washes his hands clean of all the mistakes that he made... but that's not actually the case. Sam's burden washed SAM'S hands clean (though, in my opinion, Sam's hands weren't that dirty.) Castiel's mistakes are still running amok all over the world. The ONLY thing he's fixed is Sam... so maybe he can feel like he doesn't owe anything to Sam and Dean persnally anymore, but he still owes something to the world.
- It's also interesting that Castiel repeats the "I was done for line"... Sam just said it when talking about how his damaged soul was killing him, and Cas is now using it to describe how Sam's damaged soul SAVED him - because he was under such guilt before that he couldn't possibly survive? Because he would kill himself? Why? Because it gives him an excuse to use to claim that he's made up for his mistakes now, even though he he hasn't? I think it's the latter - I think Castiel LIKES being crazy, because it gives him an excuse not to face up to his mistakes, like I said before - it's a defense-mechanism...which is what Dean was trying to call him on with the Sorry game. SAYING your sorry doesn't mean anything if you are unwilling to face up to, and make up for, your mistakes... and flowers aren't going to cut it. If you are truly sorry, you change your behaviour and you fix whatever you did.
Sam: "I know you never did anything but try to help. I realize that, Cas, and I'm grateful. We're all grateful. And we're going to help you get better, no matter what it takes."
Cas: "What do you mean 'better'?"
- See, Cas doesn't want to get 'better' because that would mean that people would start holding him accountable for his actions again, and expecting him to do something about his mistakes.
- You also have to love Sam here, because Sam KNOWS what good intentions can lead to....he's been there. And I think he tells Castiel what Sam himself always wanted to hear: "we're grateful" - basically, "I recognize that you love us and that you tried to do something you thought would be good, but it wasn't...but we're grateful that you loved us that much anyway."
*Kevin starts freaking out*
Dean: "Kevin"
Kevin: "This is all too much, what's happened to my life? I'm just a kid from Michigan, I didn't want to be a word keeper"
Dean: "Looks like we're brown bagging it."
- I do like how Dean has this odd sort of duel nature when it comes to Kevin - he both has no pity, but is also extremely gentle with him in his own way.
Dean: "Uh, I don't know man, what can I say. You've been chosen. And it sucks, believe me. There's no use asking 'why me?' because the angels - they don't care...."
- I think this is an important lesson to learn for Kevin (and really all teenagers) is that he's not the only one to have ever had his entire life destroyed like this...that he's not the only one who has been "chosen." He's not the first, and he won't be the last to go through what he is going through. Dean has been there...he was there in S4 when he found out that he was the righteous man, and he was there in S5 when he begged the heavens for help and got no answer. It's like I'm constantly telling my sister's dog (and myself), "No one cares about your problems."
Dean: "...I think maybe they just don't have the equipment to care. And it seems like when they try, it just...breaks them apart."
- And if this line isn't heartbreaking, I don't know what is. Because Dean has moved from "Cas did this to himself" to "I did this to Cas." Dean made Castiel care and it destroyed him. DEAN destroyed him. LOVING Dean destroyed him. The only common link in all your failed relationships is you.
Kevin: "I just want to be the first Asian-American President of the United States."
Dean: "Well, do your homework."
- I kind of like Dean's response here, because he's not like "well, that's not going to happen." He's more like, "okay, well, first order of business is to make sure there's still a United States to be President of by the time you're eligible."
Meg: "Not the Winchesters. I've got the angel who double-crossed him. I've got Castiel."
...
Meg: "First I want to know how many of you jerks I have to cut in."
Demon: "You think we're stupid? We didn't tell anybody!"
Meg: "I love demons"
- See, this is the thing, both Meg and Crowley had a huge disdain for other demons. Crowley believes himself to be better than them all, and I think Meg is in some sort of weird in between point - where she thinks she's better, but she also recognizes that she might not be...hence why compliments make her uncomfortable?
- I also like the notion that Crowley has a price out on Castiel's head...or demons just believe that he does.
Meg: "Look, I'm simpler than you think. I figured one thing in this world, just one, pretty much. You find a cause and you serve it, give yourself over and it orders your life. Lucifer and yellow-eyes - their mission was it for me..."
...
Meg: "I'm talking cause, douchebag, a reason to get up in the morning. Obviously these things shift over time, we learn, we grow. Now for me, currently, the cause is bringing down the king, and I'll need help to do it."
- And here we return to our theme of "how to live even though life is pointless" (ie: the suicidal depression teme.) I should really make a list of all the themes this year. 1)Mental-illness, 2)dealing with betrayal, 3)living with suicidal depression/Sisyphean torture 4)responsibility.... any others that I'm forgetting?
Dean: "Crowley ain't the problem this year."
Meg: "When are you going to get it, Crowley's always the problem. He's just waiting to strike..."
- And foreshadowing of things to come...
Cas: "This is good - harmony, communication. Now our only problem is Hester."
- I mean, I gotta hand it to Cas. He's at least recognized that what went wrong between him and Dean was a communication failure. Unfortunately, I think that's STILL going wrong.
Hester: "You took the prophet from us!"
Castiel: "I'm sorry...?"
- It's interesting that Hester blames Castiel. She obviously puts the blame on the most powerful being in the room - or thinks she does. Personally, I believe the most powerful beings in that room are Sam and Dean Winchester, and no one else has realized this yet.
Hester: "You have fallen in every way imaginable."
- Burn. But let's think about this... he's turned his back on heaven, check. He's currently tangled up in a big ball of human emotion, check. He's falling in love with and allied himself with humans, check. :P
Inais: "Please, Castiel, we have to follow the code. Help us do our work."
Dean: "He can't help you. He can't help anybody."
- You got to love Dean and Cas, because they are both trying to protect each other in this scene. Here, Dean tries to tell the angels that Cas ISN'T actually the most powerful thing in the room, because he's currently helpless mentally...and then later, Castiel will physically divert attention away from Dean...
Dean: "...we're actually trying to clean up one of your angel's messes, you know that!"
Cas: "He's actually right. An angel brought the Leviathan back into this world, and they begged him and begged him not to do it."
- I love how Cas speaks in the third person here...as though it wasn't him who did it. Using the first person would bring back all that guilt that was killing him before he took Sam's burden and thus "absolved" himself (even though he didn't.) Like I said, the crazy is a defense-mechanism...I don't think he's doing it on purpose, really though, don't get me wrong... I'm not quite sure how to explain it, other than to say it's like when you rationalize something that you KNOW is wrong, but you rationalize it anyway...and then later, you're like, why did I believe myself there? I knew I was full of shit! You're simultaneously fooling yourself and not fooling yourself, you know? Anyway, that's what I think Castiel is doing... he's simultaneously purposefully allowing himself to be crazy as an avoidance tactic, because he's not ready to face what he did completely, and also simultaneously trying to apologize for what he did.
Dean: "Just give us some time. We will take care of your prophet."
Hester: "Why should we give you anything? After everything you've taken from us? The very touch of you corrupts. When Castiel first laid a hand on you in hell, he was lost! For that you're going to pay."
- Another fantastic line, because it cuts right to the bone. "The very touch of you corrupts" - ouch. And this is DEAN. You know he already believes it.
- You also see Hester blaming Dean for taking away someone she obviously adored and looked-up to. Castiel was her hero, her captain, and then suddenly he wasn't - and it's quite easy to see the cause of that as being Dean Winchester. Dean Winchester opened Cas' eyes, so to speak, and Cas fell...really, we're coming back to the apple in the garden. It can be seen as a bad thing or a good thing, depending who you ask.
Cas: "Please, they're the ones we were put here to protect."
Hester: "No, Castiel."
- I think this is a fundamental difference between Castiel and the other angels - and it all comes down to that line from the 6x20 (another fine Ben Edlund episode) - "Don't step on that fish, Castiel. Big plans for that fish."... it's basically Castiel's FIRST memory, being told not to step on a fish - a fish that would become homo sapiens sapiens. From Castiel's first memory, he's believed that he has been stationed on earth to protect humanity... all the other angels, however, seem to believe that they were stations on earth to carry out God's/Heaven's will and nothing else - and if that involves stepping on some fish, then so be it.
- Also, I just wanted to point out that Castiel deliberately, when he speaks here, steps between Hester and Dean, then around behind Hester, causing her to turn completely away from Dean and focus purely on Castiel. Cas is very deliberately making sure that he's on the receiving end of Hester's wrath and not Dean or Sam or anyone else.
*Hester starts beating the crap out of Castiel in frustration*
Inais: "Hester no! Please! There's so few of us left."
Hester: "You wanted Free Will, well now I'm making the choices!"
- I think it's kind of cool that Castiel DID give the angels free will...and that's both a good and a bad thing. I like the fact that they didn't make everything sunshine and roses...that there are some serious horrible growing pains for heaven, and they can have horrible consequences. It's sort of like when a country becomes a democracy and then everything seemingly goes to shit because no one knows how to make a good choice...or how to run a democracy...but, I suppose arguably, they're seen to be better off than they were before. At least, by our current standards of fairness.
*Meg kills Hester*
Meg: "What, someone had to."
- This worked out perfectly when I watched it with my friends the first time, because my friend actually said "Someone had to" right before Meg delivered this line. :P
Inais: "These are strange times."
Cas: "I think they've always been."
Inais: "I wish you'd come with us."
Cas: "I'm not part of the garrison anymore, Inais, sorry."
- I like this little dialogue. I like that Inais still adores Castiel. I like that Castiel is starting to realize that maybe times are always strange... and I like that Castiel recognizes that he can never go home. It sort of makes him truly a Winchester.
Sam: "Uh, says we have to start with the blood of a fallen angel."
Cas: "Well, you know me, always happy to bleed for the Winchesters"
- I love the awkward pause before Castiel speaks - because you can tell that neither Sam or Dean are sure whether they should call Cas a fallen angel or not...like, what's the protocol there, really. It's hardly in any etiquette books. Don't talk about the war! haha. :P
Dean: "What are you going to do, Cas?"
Castiel: "I don't know. Isn't that amazing?"
- And Cas now gets to enjoy free will. And it's part of the whole theme of "how to live even though life is pointless" - Meg needs a reason to wake up in the morning, but Castiel delights in not knowing what to do at all.
Oh man, I had forgotten that they used a completely different actress for Mrs. Tran in S7.
Kevin: "It's okay, mom, they brought me back. They're keeping me safe."
Secretly!Edgar: "I don't think that's true. Rock beats scissor. Leviathan beats Angel."
- The fact that Leviathan can kill angels is legitimately scary to me. I kind of wish they had introduced that fact earlier maybe... or maybe not, maybe it doesn't matter. But it makes sense now, why god would lock them away, if they were more powerful than his soldiers.
Okay, that was a long one. I'm not sure I do a good job of explaining anything... I feel like someone much better with words and literary analysis could do a much better job of this write up than I did. I kind of have to laugh at myself sometimes when I'm doing these meta-posts, because I'm the girl who consistently got 66% on all my English essays in High School because "hey, you tried and you can spell and use good grammar, but you really suck at analyzing things." :P (Though, I was good at analyzing things through transformative works... one time I wrote a poem about Hamlet instead of an essay [I had a very nice teacher who made a special exception for me]. It was my first A in literary analysis, because I actually hit and mentioned all the major themes without even realizing it!)
So, two episodes left, and two days left to watch them if I want to get this done before November. I also still have to work for a living. SHOULD BE FUN! :)
(BTW: I hope everyone in eastern North America makes it through the storm okay).
CELLO! I love the cello.
I like Osric's justification of them using a very Asian stereotype... he has basically said that they use it as a short-hand, so that you immediately think you know the character, and then he busts out of the stereotype and we all learn something or something...he said it much better than I obviously can remember it. The more I do this rewatch, the less eloquent I become. I am probably not even making any sense anymore.
I kind of miss Kevin's old hair. But then, I grew up in an era when shaggy-haired dudes were the attractive ones. Also, it makes him look younger. Though, I think the shorter hair works better for his character in S8.
Channing: "I read one from a kid who got into Cornell. He didn't have any arms or legs or anything. He had to type the whole thing with his mouth. It was beautiful."
Kevin: "I am so screwed."
- So, my sister happens to work at a very prestigious school here in Vancouver, where a lot of foreigners (mostly Asian foreigners) send their children. It's...well, a lot of them DO live up to this stereotype. She told me the most hilarious story today and I really really want to tell you guys, but we decided that it was WAY too "inside information" about an heir to a multi-billion dollar company...but let's just say that the kid has Kevin Tran problems, except every second word out of his mouth is a swear-word and he'd much rather be smoking dope on a beach somewhere and finding work as a plumber. Only, it's hard to feel that sorry for him when you know how much he's worth.
Channing: "You know, no matter what, one day college isn't going to matter anymore"
Kevin: "You're out of your mind."
- Ah, the foreshadowing. :)
I love the thunder crash with the first hammer fall on the hard clay.
I just realized that I think they have Kevin in the same pink shirt in 8x01, though I may be wrong.
Dean: "That sound like somebody saying 'Wait! Don't! Stop!' to you?"
Sam: "Uh, yeah, yeah."
Dean: "Yeah....ah well."
- Haha, I love Dean. I also love how the Winchesters have gotten to a point where ominous warning thunderstorms barely phase them anymore.
I remember flipping out when Kevin got lightening-ed, because I thought it was an angelic possession without consent. But no, it's an awakening of embedded knowledge and purpose....without consent. :P
CASTIEL WAKES! :)
Edgar: "Strange, isn't it? Someone would choose to be named Dick?"
- It's true.
Radio: "Baffled? No I'm not baffled. Frankly, I'm offended. This is not the way weather behaves."
- This is one of my favourite lines in the entire episode - and it's said as background noise. It's BRILLIANT. There are just...so many levels to it. Firstly, the fact that the PhD weather expert is PERSONALLY OFFENDED by the weather not doing what he expected it to...well, that's just hilarious. But, is it weird that I also like it on another level... and that's the level where this PhD guy actually has the gall to think that he should be able to dictate how weather should and should not behave. It just reminds me of society's expectations of how women should and should not behave...or how anyone should and should not behave, and how offended people get when people behave in a way contrary to that. And yes, this is me over-analyzing a comedy line to the extreme...
Sam: "We broke this thing open last night. Every maternity ward within 100 mile radius got slammed. Looks like any woman in the last month of her pregnancy went into labour."
- And this was obviously an inside joke to the fact that Genevieve was expected to go into labour any day. And we know from Osric's interviews that Jared got the call when they were filming the running scene.
Sam: "What?"
Meg: "What up, Bulwinkle? Just a little FYI call, your boy's awake."
- I like how Meg calls him "your boy." (I may not be a shipper, but I'm a huge fan of love and family.)
Hahaha, I love the way Kevin answers his phone with a distressed noise...and the fact that he screams at everything. I really like Kevin.
Dean: "We raced all the way here, but now I don't know. I can't say I'm fired up to see what's left of the guy."
- I like Dean, because I can just imagine his thought process...the whole time he's driving, it would be "gotta get to Cas, gotta get to Cas, I hope Cas is alright" and then once he arrives, it's going to sink in that the last time he was here, he was watching Sam waste away in front of him... and now he's thinking "can I go through that again? There's no one left to save him."
Sam: "Do you think he remembers it all?"
Dean: "That and I'm guessing whatever kind of hell baggage he listed off of your plate. It's not going to be pretty."
- I had actually forgotten that the Winchesters didn't really know how Cas was handling getting his memories back. And then the addition of Sam's madness...yeah, I can see why Dean didn't have much hope.
Dean: "Cas"
Cas: "Hello Dean. Sam."
Sam: "Hey Castiel" *smiles*
- I love how Sam is always happy to see Castiel. It doesn't even make that much logical sense, because Sam and Cas have gone head to head at different points - also, they're really only friends because they both love Dean and therefore have to spend time with each other. Yet, Sam seems to genuinely LIKE Cas, and be EXTREMELY forgiving of any and all mistakes that Castiel has made. Even the ones that directly hurt Sam and left him in flashback-hell and slowly dying for months. I mean, if Cas and Sam were an item, I'd start to worry that Sam was the victim in an abusive relationship...but they aren't. Sam just genuinely seems to want to be Castiel's friend and he seems to genuinely care for him.
Dean: "Well look at you, walking and talking, that's great, right?"
Cas: "Pull my finger."
Dean: "What?"
Cas: "My finger. Pull it."
*Dean pulls his fingers. Cas makes the lights explode and laughs like a dork*
- And this is where Dean starts losing hope that he has his friend back...because this is very un-Cas-like behaviour.
- This is an interesting version of Cas though, just from the perspective of trying to figure out WHAT is going on in his brain. Obviously, Castiel destroyed his entire life by accident, and then he somehow "shifted" Sam's madness to himself.
In my personal headcannon, this means that he has an extremely limited psychic link to the damaged part of Sam's soul...so what MIGHT be happening is that Castiel, an man of ordinarily fairly simplistic emotions, is now being bombarded by a twisted hell-scape of Sam-feelings... and we all know how many emotions SAM has. So, this is Castiel overburdened by emotion and not knowing how to work through it. He's got his guilt and remorse, and then he's got a constant jumble of random crap from Sam's madness.
So, what does this mean? It means that Castiel tries to open with a joke. He wants to make Dean to smile. He wants his friends to love him, because a)he wants to be forgiven, and b)SAM has always just wanted his family to love him and not reject him. Castiel wants everything to be okay again, and maybe the way to get that is to pretend that it already is.
Dean: "Okay, just hang on, Cas, let us catch up to you for a second."
Sam: "So, you're saying you remember who you are. What you are."
Cas: "Yes, of course. Oh! Outside today, in the garden, I followed a honeybee. I saw the route of flowers. It's all right there, the whole plan, there's nothing to add."
- And here we have Cas basically trying to convey that he's LEARNT HIS LESSON: There is nothing to add. I should not have tried to play God. I should have listened to you. The world is as it should be and I should not attempt to change it to my will. I am sorry for ever believing otherwise.
Cas: "Will you look at her. My caretaker. All of that thorny pain. So beautiful."
Meg: "We've been over this. I don't like poetry. Put up or shut-up."
Sam: "Okay, so! Cas, you say you woke up last night..."
- Cas also doesn't want to have any enemies. I don't think he actually particularly cares for Meg when it comes right down to it(sorry Megstiel shippers)... but he's currently trying to see the good in everyone and see everything as God's plan.
- I also like how it clearly makes Meg uncomfortable, because she KNOWS she's a demon and she knows that means she appears as an ugly twisted thing when you can see her true face.
- And I like how Sam is like "oh god, this is awkward" and interrupts...even though he does that goddamn gesture that I hate again. I'm just going to have to get used to this, aren't I?
Cas: "Oh, of course, now I understand."
Sam: "Understand what?"
Cas: "You were the ones. Well, I guess that makes sense."
Dean: "What makes sense?"
Cas: "If someone was going to free the Word from the vault of the earth, it would end up being you two. I love you guys."
*HUGS*
- Firstly, Dean sounds SO BROKEN when he speaks here. You might also notice that a lot of the conversation is being carried by Sam. I think Dean is currently at a loss for words because of how unrecognizable Cas is to him.
- Secondly, I love that Cas is like "of course it would be you guys! You silly boys!" It's kind of adorable.
- Thirdly, Castiel finally gets hugs! Granted, he just takes them, and both Winchesters are like "this is more physical affection than we are used to," but it still counts!
Dean: "Cas, please, we're losing ground out there. We need your help. Can you not see that?"
- This is very important to Dean, and I've been trying to think of a way to put it into words for ten minutes now, but I can't... I'm trying to say something along the lines of... The Cas that Dean knew was a soldier, and Dean was a soldier...so basically, they understood each other on that level for their entire relationship. At all times in the past, Dean has been able to sway Cas to his side by telling Cas that he needs him for a battle. It's not a selfish request though. It's not a matter of Dean USING Cas. It's about who these characters fundamentally are and how they understand each other. They were both made to fight battles, and to ask one another to come to battle for them is actually a declaration of friendship. And to act reluctant to help is to suggest that maybe feelings have changed.
- Now, that all very lofty idea being said... I think this is also about Dean testing Castiel's cognizance He's saying "how aware are? How crazy are you? Do you still understand what's going on around you?" And unfortunately, I think the answer he's getting back is "I am aware, but I don't care any more" which to Dean means "I am aware, I just don't care about you anymore."
Cas: "Hey, this is the handwriting of Metatron."
Sam: "Metatron? Are you saying a transformer wrote that?"
Dean: "That's Megatron."
Sam: "What?"
Dean: "The transformer, that's Megatron."
Sam: "What?"
Cas: "MeTAtron. He's an angel. He's the scribe of God. He took down dictation when the world was being formed."
- I still think that Metatron should be a name that Sam knows by now - but this exchange is still funny. I like the way that Dean tries to whisper-correct him, and Sam is just so flabbergasted that Cas is obviously crazier than he thought...or that transformers are real, honestly, I can't tell. ;P
Dean: "Well what's it say then?"
Cas: "Uhh...tree....horse, fiddler crab. I can't read it. It wasn't meant for angels."
- Haha, I get a kick out of Cas pretending he can make sense of it even for a second.
Meg: "Come on, it's my ass too."
Dean: "Back off"
Meg: "Damn it! Enough of this demons are second class citizens crap."
Cas: "I don't like conflict"
*Cas disappears and the tablet breaks*
Sam: "Uh"
- I like Sam's reaction to the Word of God being shattered.
- Ruby used to do the same thing as Meg does here - call their prejudice against demons "racism" and such...but I mean, they ARE human souls twisted beyond recognition that only leave tragedy and destruction in their path, seemingly feeding off the pain of others. I'm really not seeing them as equals. :P
- Also, Cas is me in an argument. Just so you know, I will never have your back.
Meg: "What are you guys caught up in now? I deserve to know, Sam.... Okay fine. I'll hit the road then, let me just go get my angel."
- I kind of like how Sam just doesn't talk to her at all. Like he's made some rule for himself that he's not allowed to talk to demons anymore. :P
Sam: "Meg! What are you talking about? Stop!"
Meg: "We both call, who do you think Cas will come to? I'm guessing me. You heard him, 'thorny beauty blah blah' - I'm the saint who stayed with him. He owes me. His words."
- I think Meg is bluffing, and or lying. Personally, no matter how much Cas acts as though he likes Meg, I think that in a question of Winchesters vs. Anyone-else, Castiel will ALWAYS choose the Winchesters. Especially considering what happened at the end of S6.
Sam: "What are you going to do with a broken angel? Don't be stupid."
Meg: "I'll take power where I can get it. I've got myself to look out for."
- I think Meg is the one that sees Castiel as a tool to be used...which is unsurprising. I also think that she hasn't fully grasped how broken he is, or how useless he is in this current state. I think she's hoping that he'll be easier to manipulate, when in reality he's more difficult.
- I kind of wish Meg has turned the quesition back around and asked Sam what he and Dean intended to do with a broken angel...because I think the answer would be something along the lines of "love him so much that he gets better again." :P
BTW folks: don't ever leave the Word of God unattended.
Meg: "You're not a demon or a chomper, what the hell are you?"
Kevin "I'm...Kevin Tran. I'm in Advanced Placement. Please don't kill me."
Sam: "I'm not going to kill you."
*Sam tries to take the tablet, Kevin comes with it*
Kevin: "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't know why, but I can't let go of this."
- I just love that this is how Sam first meets Kevin. I mean, it's such a hilarious introduction for a character.
Dean: "You realize you just broke God's word."
- This sentence could have so many meanings - and probably does.
Dean: "It's Sam's thing, isn't it? You taking on his cage-match scars. I'm guessing that's what broke your bank, right?"
Cas: "Well, it took everything to get me here."
Dean: "What are you talking about, man?"
Cas: "Dean, I know you want different answers."
- I think what Cas is trying to say is that EVERYTHING broke his bank. He's trying to say in order for Dean to understand, he has to take into account everything that has happened to Castiel to date. But I think he recognizes that Dean wants to blame the current situation on one thing - he wants to have a spot to direct his anger, and Castiel can't provide him with one.
Dean: "No. I want you to button up your coat and help us take down leviathans. Do you remember what you did?"
*Cas holds up SORRY board game and then lays out the board and pieces*
Cas: "Do you want to go first?"
- I absolutely love this scene, because Cas IS answering Dean. He remembers what he did and he is SORRY, but he recognizes that he isn't solely to blame, and I don't think that's necessarily something that Dean has recognized yet.
- I also think that Castiel needs Dean to acknowledge his own failings in their relationship - Castiel can't very well take ALL the blame, it would be a very unequal relationship if he did. With "Saint Dean" who has to put up with stupid Castiel who isn't worthy of him. If Dean can acknowledge his own mistakes, then Cas can forgive him, and if Cas can forgive Dean, then Dean can hopefully forgive Cas...and I think Cas wants more than anything to be forgiven. I think Dean HAS forgiven him, but not to the point where he'll flat out tell him so, and unfortunately, I think Castiel has to hear it to believe it.
Kevin changed his shirt at some point. I'm not sure when it happened. I wasn't paying attention. Sam and Dean wear the same clothes thoughout this entire episode. Sam has a new coat.
Kevin: "All I know is, this is...it's for me. I'm supposed to keep it."
Meg: "Good luck."
Sam: "But you don't know what it is?" *Kevin shakes his head* "Open it."
- I love this, because Meg gives Sam a look that's clearly a "what are you waiting for, kick the shit out of him and take it" look...but Sam is just goes about it the intelligent way.
Cas: "You know, we weren't sure at first, which monkeys were going to make it. No offense, but I was backing the Neanderthals because they're poetry was amazing. It's in perfect tune with the spheres. But in the end it was you - the homo sapiens sapiens. You guys ate the apple, invented pants."
Dean: "Cas, where can we find this Metatron? Is he still alive?"
Cas: "I'm sorry, I think you have to go back to Start."
- And I love this, because Castiel is TRYING to help Dean, but with the wrong problem. Castiel is trying to explain HIMSELF to Dean. He wants Dean to understand why he did what he did - he wants Dean to understand the "everything" that brought him to this point. Dean, of course, is focused on the other problem - you know, the current, immediate one.
- I also love Cas' line "You guys ate the apple, invented pants" because his phrasing puts a whole different slant on the whole Adam-Eve-Apple story... it's not "you ate the apple, saw your nakedness, and were ashamed", it's "you ate the apple, saw your nakedness, and invented pants." Just think about the two completely different mindsets being expressed there. Personally, I'm MUCH more fond of the second one.
- As a sidenote: I love the way Superntural mixes Judeo-Christian mythology with evolution... the fact that humans "ate the apple" while roaming the earth with neanderthals... it's just kind of cool. On that note, I also love that Castiel liked neanderthal's better. Did you know that neanderthal's may have sung to each other to communicate? Also, they had higher pitched voices and bigger brains. AND, if you are Caucasian (or have Caucasian in your ancestry), then there's a good chance that at least part of your DNA is neanderthal DNA. :)
Dean: "This is important. I think Metatron could stop a lot of bad, do you understand that?"
Cas: "We live in a Sorry universe. It's engineered to create conflict. I mean, why should I prosper from your misfortune. But these are the rules, I didn't make them."
- Cas is cutting to the chase. He's trying to apologize for causing Dean misfortune in order to benefit himself, that he's sorry that they were ever in conflict, but he didn't have control over that part - nor the part that led him to believe that Dean's misfortune would be to Cas' benefit.
Dean: "You made some of them - when you tried to become God, when you cut that hole into that wall."
- And I think this is when Dean realizes the conversation that Castiel is trying to have, and starts arguing HIS side finally. Cas can't blame the universe, because Cas always had a choice and he needs to take responsibility for those choices whether he wants to or not, whether some of them are the universes fault or Dean's fault, he still needs to take responsibility for them.
- I also realized that the first time I heard this line, I thought that "cut that hole into that wall" was cuting the door into purgatory, but now I'm realizing that Dean might be talking about SAM'S wall - because everything is always very personal to Dean. He doesn't care that Lucifer is free, he cares that his brother chose to listen to a demon over him. He doesn't care that leviathans are roaming the earth, he cares that Cas broke Sam. :P
Cas: "Dean. It's your move."
- "Dean, will you forgive me?" is basically what Castiel is saying here. That really the next move in their relationship is Dean's...that Dean has to address what went wrong and decide how they are moving forward, that how they move forward isn't up to Cas at all.
Dean: "FORGET THE DAMN GAME! Forget the game, Cas."
Cas: "I'm sorry, Dean."
Dean: "No, you're playing Sorry."
- And this is the problem between a lot of people who fight. Some people are people of words and some are people of action. Castiel is SAYING he's sorry, he's acting as though he is sorry; but, as my mother says, "what do flowers have to do with it?" If Cas truly his sorry, then he has to show Dean through action. Dean has been trying to show Cas through action that Castiel is forgiven - he's asking him to come to battle alongside them again...but Castiel wants to hear Dean say the words, he wants their communication to improve. Dean, meanwhile, can't understand that Castiel is truly sorry because if he really was, then he would clean up his mess and fix things. Dean won't believe it until he sees it, and Castiel won't believe anything until he hears it.
Sam: "Does it say anything about how to kill them? Because that's kind of been a problem."
- I love Sam.
Dean: "What?"
Cas: "Sam. He's talking to angels."
- I love how HAPPY Castiel is. It's kind of heartbreaking really. Also, the fact that Castiel can tell that Sam is talking to angels, totally supports my theory that Castiel actually has a weird psychic link to Sam, and you can't tell me any differently.
Hester: "A demon whore and a Winchester, again. STEP AWAY FROM THE PROPHET."
Kevin: "Who? Me?"
Hester: "Sole keeper of the Word on earth, we are hear to take you."
Kevin: "What do you mean take?"
Hester: "Kill the demon and her lover."
Meg: "That's not how- We're not."
- I'm not sure who is more offended, Meg or Sam. lol
- Also, "SOLE keeper of the Word..." that answers a question I had about Kevin right there. Again, oddly lucky that he was living in the states. Or maybe prophets are just activated one at a time and they picked the closest one to the Word. Yeah, that makes sense.
Inais: "Castiel"
Cas: "Hi"
Inais: "You're alive."
Hester: "You."
Cas: "Hello Hester."
Hester: "You smote thousands in heaven. Gave a big scary speech and then were gone. WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?"
- I like this, because we see Hester be, for lack of a better word, human. She cracks her "angelness" at the sight of Castiel, because she's angry...but she's not just angry, she's hurt and confused and angry. You really get a sense of who Castiel was to Hester and Inais - he was a role-model and someone they looked up to, and then when he went off the rails, he basically let them down in a way...and Hester is furious about being let down, and Inais isn't furious, he knows there's got to be a good explanation, he still wants to believe that Castiel is someone to be adored.
Inais: "Where have you been?"
Cas: "Oh Inais, Hester. I know you want something. Answers. And I, I wish it could be that - there is still many things that I can teach you. I can offer. Well, perspective! Here, pull my finger. Uh, Meg will get another light and I'll blow it out again, and this time it will be funny and we'll all look back and laugh."
- And this is acted brilliantly by Castiel, because you can see that he LOVES them, but that as soon as he starts talking, he realizes that he's going to let them down. So, what does he do? He tries to make them laugh...he tries to make them happy with the same stupid joke that failed to make Dean and Sam laugh, but THIS time, THIS time it'll work, because it's the only way Castiel currently has of making anyone smile.
- Also, "I know you want something. Answers." I have have the feeling that part of the reason Castiel is staying crazy (because I do think he's using it as a defense mechanism) is partly because he knows that EVERYONE wants something out of him - and they all want conflicting things, things he can't offer. And when everyone wants something and you can't please any of them, what do you do? Well, you could basically be someone that obviously doesn't have anything to offer and someone from whom no one expects anything...a crazy person.
Hester: "You're insane."
Dean: "Hey! Heads up sunshine."
- I think it's also telling that Dean had been there for a while probably. He and Cas had probably run up together...or at least, he hadn't been too far behind Cas. But he chooses to banish the angels as soon as Hester says something rather cutting to Castiel.
Dean: "All angels are blown back to their corners, we've got like three, four hours, tops."
Sam: "Meg where did you get that?"
Meg: "A lot of angels died this year, and-"
Kevin: "WHAT'S HAPPENING?!?! WHAT'S HAPPENING?!?!"
- And this is where Kevin won my heart completely - because he has basically the most honest reaction to our heroes than anyone else has ever had in the history of this show. He flips the fuck out. And I just love how Dean, Sam, and Meg, are all talking like this stuff happens to them everyday, and Kevin is like "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"
Dean: "What is that?"
Sam: "It's uh, Kevin Tran. He's in Advanced Placement."
- This is the second time that someone has asked WHAT Kevin is rather than WHO he is...and I kind of like that, because it says a lot about the Winchesters lives. Dean knows he's not an angel, because the sigil didn't get rid of him, and he wouldn't be freaked out of his mind if he were a demon...and he probably wouldn't be in a ball on Cas' bed in the room with Sam and Meg, if he were just a human bystander...
Kevin: "So leviathans, these monsters are real. And angels, with wing?"
Sam: "Yeah, well, no wings. No anything."
- Well, they do have wings, we just can't see them.
Dean: "No junk! Junkless. So, Kevin, you can read the chicken scratch on the god rock, huh?"
- I often wonder how Dean knows this...but that being said, my theory is that what Dean constantly means by "junkless" is that angels don't have an assigned sex. They're either hermaphroditic or sexless. They tend to take on the gender of whatever vessel is available to them, at least when it comes to the English language, because unfortunately English doesn't have a pronoun for people who are both male and female (or neither male nor female, as the case may be).
Dean: "-that's back in one piece, I see. And you're saying there's a how-to-punch-Dick recipe in there somewhere."
Kevin: "I don't know what you're saying, but it seems to be an In Case of Emergency note...."
- I also love Kevin because he doesn't immediately understand what Dean is saying even though Dean is using Dean-speak and talking about people Kevin doesn't even know.
- I also love the thought that God had to leave "In Case of Emergency" notes scattered around the planet, because...why? He knew that eventually everything would go to shit? He purposefully designed things to go to shit? You know, maybe he did. I remember when I used to play SimCity a lot, and it always got to the point where I had my city and I was racking in the money, and everything was prosperous and beautiful and that's when I'd unleash the floods, fires, riots, giant monsters... :P
Kevin: "...What did they mean by Prophet?"
Dean: "Oh no. Really?"
Sam: "Yeah, yeah, that's what the angels said."
Kevin: "I don't want to be a prophet."
Dean: "No, you don't want to be at all."
- I also love how Dean and Sam are OLD HAT at this. I mean, put yourself in Kevin's shoes and imagine someone saying, "Oh, you're the Gaburioru" and you don't know what that means, but all of a sudden everyone in the room is like "aw crap. Sucks to be you, man." AND YOU STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT IT MEANS.
Hitting the road! Back to the cabin!
Dean: "Great, so now we're kidnappers?"
Meg: "Not if we shut up about it. Why? Who'd we kidnap?"
- I gotta say, I think this is my favourite line from Meg ever. I just love how her first reaction is "not if we shut-up about it," before she even knows what the hell they're talking about. That's the kind of friend that I love to have. You know, the type that you can call up and say "I need you to help me bury a body," and they're just like "I'll get my shovel... wait, who'd you kill?" :P
Cas arrived at a dogtrack in Perth, Australia. I like his description of being surrounded by unhappy dogs. I guess Perth, Australia, is better known than Perth, Scotland...and DEFINITELY better known than Perth, Ontario, Canada. :P
Meg: "Kevin. This is Castiel."
Kevin: "You're one of the angels?"
Castiel touches Kevin's nose: "Boop."
- I have a thing for nose 'boops' okay, so sue me.
Cas: "Meg, are you hurt?"
Meg: "Shut-up."
- This is the thing, Castiel's concern/caring for Meg, actually makes Meg REALLY uncomfortable, and it's kind of hilarious. Part of me wonders if he does it on purpose for that reason.
Dean: "Cas, what happened back there? Who are those guys?"
Cas: "They're from the garrison. MY old garrison. We were assigned to watch the earth. Often it was boring. Your wars are very boring, your sex - repetition. Anyway, I was- I was their captain."
- I love how Castiel is so fondly nostalgic when he says this. Castiel did give up a lot to assist Dean, and part of that was his station in the garrison...and then he probably got it back in S6, only to have to lead the garrison to civil war and ultimately lose them again through his own actions. Castiel HAS fallen a great distance, Hester isn't wrong about that.
- Also, I think this is part of what Castiel was trying to tell Dean earlier - his life was BORING until Dean came into it... and that sounds all very romantic and crap, but I think to Castiel is meant that he had no idea how to deal with Dean, how to deal with free will, because he had lived for centuries with a completely different mindset.
Cas: "...those racing dogs were absolutely miserable. They can only think in ovals."
- I've actually heard this about greyhounds and it makes me so sad...but apparently when you rescue retired greyhounds, they only know how to run in circles - and you have to teach them that they're free to run in straight lines or whichever way they'd like.
- I also wonder if there's a metaphor in here that I'm missing.
Dean: "CAS! Don't make me pull this car over. Why are angels after us?"
Cas: "Are you angry? Why are you angry?"
Dean: "No, I uh...please, can we just stay on target."
- I think this is a problem with the way Dean expresses emotion - and part of the reason that Castiel has such a hard time understanding that he's forgiven. Dean expresses every emotion through anger. And who can blame him - in our society, men aren't allowed to express any emotion except for anger, because anything else is considered "not masculine"...because misogyny hurts everyone. So, Dean is concerned - angry, Dean is sad - angry, Dean is stressed out - angry, Dean is confused as to why angels are after them - angry. And this was what drove Castiel and Dean apart in S6, because all Castiel ever saw was "Dean is angry at me" rather than "Dean is very concerned that I am on the wrong path, and it's making him sad and worried, because he loves me very much."
Cas: "...if the word of God is revealed. A keeper of the God will awaken. Like this hot potato right here." *pokes Kevin's nose*
Kevin: "Please stop that."
- I'd want to poke Kevin's nose too. Also, I think Castiel has a thing for prophets. He was very fanboy around Chuck too. It's probably ingrained in angels to have an automatic fondness for prophets.
Cas: "If you want the Word. You're going to have to duck Hester and her soldiers."
Sam: "You're in our corner, right Cas?"
Cas: "I don't fight anymore. I watch the bees."
- I think Cas is taking himself out of the fight because he doesn't trust himself anymore. He made a grievous error and who's to say he won't do so again?
- I also think that, like I said before, this is hugely distressing to Dean, because he and Cas' relationship is based around them relating as soldiers.
Kevin: "This looks like a sex torture dungeon. Is this a sex torture dungeon?"
Dean: "No, this is not a sex torture - get over here, sit down and read, would you." *waving large curved blade around.*
- I love little things like this, when we see Dean from an outsider's point of view... because Dean is trying to reassure Kevin WHILE WAVING WEAPONS AROUND. It's just kind of hilarious.
*Sam looks at his hand* (wrong one though, I think)
Cas: "You seem troubled. Though, that is a primary aspect of your personality, so I sometimes ignore it."
- I love this line.
Sam: "Okay, um, right now I'm just wondering about you?"
Cas: "What about me? You're worried about the burden I lifted from you."
Sam: "I think I was done for. Do you see Lucifer?"
- Sam's personal guilt knows no bounds really, and this is a good example about how emotions defy logic - and that's always important to remember in Supernatural. Because it's Cas' fault that Sam went crazy, it was Cas' choice to fix it by making HIMSELF crazy...and yet Sam feels like it's SAM'S fault that Cas is crazy. Like that burden was his to bare alone and no one elses. And partially, he does have a point... because being crazy DID make Sam, for the first time, feel like he had paid his debt to society.
Cas: "I did at first. That was a projection of yours, I think - sort of an aftertaste. Now, I more see...everything. It's funny, I was done for to, the weight of all my mistakes - all those lives and souls lost, I was...I was lost, until I took on your pain. It's strange to think that helped, but-"
- And this is the interesting thing, because now CAS feels unburdened. Like, just because he's taken Sam's burden, that somehow washes his hands clean of all the mistakes that he made... but that's not actually the case. Sam's burden washed SAM'S hands clean (though, in my opinion, Sam's hands weren't that dirty.) Castiel's mistakes are still running amok all over the world. The ONLY thing he's fixed is Sam... so maybe he can feel like he doesn't owe anything to Sam and Dean persnally anymore, but he still owes something to the world.
- It's also interesting that Castiel repeats the "I was done for line"... Sam just said it when talking about how his damaged soul was killing him, and Cas is now using it to describe how Sam's damaged soul SAVED him - because he was under such guilt before that he couldn't possibly survive? Because he would kill himself? Why? Because it gives him an excuse to use to claim that he's made up for his mistakes now, even though he he hasn't? I think it's the latter - I think Castiel LIKES being crazy, because it gives him an excuse not to face up to his mistakes, like I said before - it's a defense-mechanism...which is what Dean was trying to call him on with the Sorry game. SAYING your sorry doesn't mean anything if you are unwilling to face up to, and make up for, your mistakes... and flowers aren't going to cut it. If you are truly sorry, you change your behaviour and you fix whatever you did.
Sam: "I know you never did anything but try to help. I realize that, Cas, and I'm grateful. We're all grateful. And we're going to help you get better, no matter what it takes."
Cas: "What do you mean 'better'?"
- See, Cas doesn't want to get 'better' because that would mean that people would start holding him accountable for his actions again, and expecting him to do something about his mistakes.
- You also have to love Sam here, because Sam KNOWS what good intentions can lead to....he's been there. And I think he tells Castiel what Sam himself always wanted to hear: "we're grateful" - basically, "I recognize that you love us and that you tried to do something you thought would be good, but it wasn't...but we're grateful that you loved us that much anyway."
*Kevin starts freaking out*
Dean: "Kevin"
Kevin: "This is all too much, what's happened to my life? I'm just a kid from Michigan, I didn't want to be a word keeper"
Dean: "Looks like we're brown bagging it."
- I do like how Dean has this odd sort of duel nature when it comes to Kevin - he both has no pity, but is also extremely gentle with him in his own way.
Dean: "Uh, I don't know man, what can I say. You've been chosen. And it sucks, believe me. There's no use asking 'why me?' because the angels - they don't care...."
- I think this is an important lesson to learn for Kevin (and really all teenagers) is that he's not the only one to have ever had his entire life destroyed like this...that he's not the only one who has been "chosen." He's not the first, and he won't be the last to go through what he is going through. Dean has been there...he was there in S4 when he found out that he was the righteous man, and he was there in S5 when he begged the heavens for help and got no answer. It's like I'm constantly telling my sister's dog (and myself), "No one cares about your problems."
Dean: "...I think maybe they just don't have the equipment to care. And it seems like when they try, it just...breaks them apart."
- And if this line isn't heartbreaking, I don't know what is. Because Dean has moved from "Cas did this to himself" to "I did this to Cas." Dean made Castiel care and it destroyed him. DEAN destroyed him. LOVING Dean destroyed him. The only common link in all your failed relationships is you.
Kevin: "I just want to be the first Asian-American President of the United States."
Dean: "Well, do your homework."
- I kind of like Dean's response here, because he's not like "well, that's not going to happen." He's more like, "okay, well, first order of business is to make sure there's still a United States to be President of by the time you're eligible."
Meg: "Not the Winchesters. I've got the angel who double-crossed him. I've got Castiel."
...
Meg: "First I want to know how many of you jerks I have to cut in."
Demon: "You think we're stupid? We didn't tell anybody!"
Meg: "I love demons"
- See, this is the thing, both Meg and Crowley had a huge disdain for other demons. Crowley believes himself to be better than them all, and I think Meg is in some sort of weird in between point - where she thinks she's better, but she also recognizes that she might not be...hence why compliments make her uncomfortable?
- I also like the notion that Crowley has a price out on Castiel's head...or demons just believe that he does.
Meg: "Look, I'm simpler than you think. I figured one thing in this world, just one, pretty much. You find a cause and you serve it, give yourself over and it orders your life. Lucifer and yellow-eyes - their mission was it for me..."
...
Meg: "I'm talking cause, douchebag, a reason to get up in the morning. Obviously these things shift over time, we learn, we grow. Now for me, currently, the cause is bringing down the king, and I'll need help to do it."
- And here we return to our theme of "how to live even though life is pointless" (ie: the suicidal depression teme.) I should really make a list of all the themes this year. 1)Mental-illness, 2)dealing with betrayal, 3)living with suicidal depression/Sisyphean torture 4)responsibility.... any others that I'm forgetting?
Dean: "Crowley ain't the problem this year."
Meg: "When are you going to get it, Crowley's always the problem. He's just waiting to strike..."
- And foreshadowing of things to come...
Cas: "This is good - harmony, communication. Now our only problem is Hester."
- I mean, I gotta hand it to Cas. He's at least recognized that what went wrong between him and Dean was a communication failure. Unfortunately, I think that's STILL going wrong.
Hester: "You took the prophet from us!"
Castiel: "I'm sorry...?"
- It's interesting that Hester blames Castiel. She obviously puts the blame on the most powerful being in the room - or thinks she does. Personally, I believe the most powerful beings in that room are Sam and Dean Winchester, and no one else has realized this yet.
Hester: "You have fallen in every way imaginable."
- Burn. But let's think about this... he's turned his back on heaven, check. He's currently tangled up in a big ball of human emotion, check. He's falling in love with and allied himself with humans, check. :P
Inais: "Please, Castiel, we have to follow the code. Help us do our work."
Dean: "He can't help you. He can't help anybody."
- You got to love Dean and Cas, because they are both trying to protect each other in this scene. Here, Dean tries to tell the angels that Cas ISN'T actually the most powerful thing in the room, because he's currently helpless mentally...and then later, Castiel will physically divert attention away from Dean...
Dean: "...we're actually trying to clean up one of your angel's messes, you know that!"
Cas: "He's actually right. An angel brought the Leviathan back into this world, and they begged him and begged him not to do it."
- I love how Cas speaks in the third person here...as though it wasn't him who did it. Using the first person would bring back all that guilt that was killing him before he took Sam's burden and thus "absolved" himself (even though he didn't.) Like I said, the crazy is a defense-mechanism...I don't think he's doing it on purpose, really though, don't get me wrong... I'm not quite sure how to explain it, other than to say it's like when you rationalize something that you KNOW is wrong, but you rationalize it anyway...and then later, you're like, why did I believe myself there? I knew I was full of shit! You're simultaneously fooling yourself and not fooling yourself, you know? Anyway, that's what I think Castiel is doing... he's simultaneously purposefully allowing himself to be crazy as an avoidance tactic, because he's not ready to face what he did completely, and also simultaneously trying to apologize for what he did.
Dean: "Just give us some time. We will take care of your prophet."
Hester: "Why should we give you anything? After everything you've taken from us? The very touch of you corrupts. When Castiel first laid a hand on you in hell, he was lost! For that you're going to pay."
- Another fantastic line, because it cuts right to the bone. "The very touch of you corrupts" - ouch. And this is DEAN. You know he already believes it.
- You also see Hester blaming Dean for taking away someone she obviously adored and looked-up to. Castiel was her hero, her captain, and then suddenly he wasn't - and it's quite easy to see the cause of that as being Dean Winchester. Dean Winchester opened Cas' eyes, so to speak, and Cas fell...really, we're coming back to the apple in the garden. It can be seen as a bad thing or a good thing, depending who you ask.
Cas: "Please, they're the ones we were put here to protect."
Hester: "No, Castiel."
- I think this is a fundamental difference between Castiel and the other angels - and it all comes down to that line from the 6x20 (another fine Ben Edlund episode) - "Don't step on that fish, Castiel. Big plans for that fish."... it's basically Castiel's FIRST memory, being told not to step on a fish - a fish that would become homo sapiens sapiens. From Castiel's first memory, he's believed that he has been stationed on earth to protect humanity... all the other angels, however, seem to believe that they were stations on earth to carry out God's/Heaven's will and nothing else - and if that involves stepping on some fish, then so be it.
- Also, I just wanted to point out that Castiel deliberately, when he speaks here, steps between Hester and Dean, then around behind Hester, causing her to turn completely away from Dean and focus purely on Castiel. Cas is very deliberately making sure that he's on the receiving end of Hester's wrath and not Dean or Sam or anyone else.
*Hester starts beating the crap out of Castiel in frustration*
Inais: "Hester no! Please! There's so few of us left."
Hester: "You wanted Free Will, well now I'm making the choices!"
- I think it's kind of cool that Castiel DID give the angels free will...and that's both a good and a bad thing. I like the fact that they didn't make everything sunshine and roses...that there are some serious horrible growing pains for heaven, and they can have horrible consequences. It's sort of like when a country becomes a democracy and then everything seemingly goes to shit because no one knows how to make a good choice...or how to run a democracy...but, I suppose arguably, they're seen to be better off than they were before. At least, by our current standards of fairness.
*Meg kills Hester*
Meg: "What, someone had to."
- This worked out perfectly when I watched it with my friends the first time, because my friend actually said "Someone had to" right before Meg delivered this line. :P
Inais: "These are strange times."
Cas: "I think they've always been."
Inais: "I wish you'd come with us."
Cas: "I'm not part of the garrison anymore, Inais, sorry."
- I like this little dialogue. I like that Inais still adores Castiel. I like that Castiel is starting to realize that maybe times are always strange... and I like that Castiel recognizes that he can never go home. It sort of makes him truly a Winchester.
Sam: "Uh, says we have to start with the blood of a fallen angel."
Cas: "Well, you know me, always happy to bleed for the Winchesters"
- I love the awkward pause before Castiel speaks - because you can tell that neither Sam or Dean are sure whether they should call Cas a fallen angel or not...like, what's the protocol there, really. It's hardly in any etiquette books. Don't talk about the war! haha. :P
Dean: "What are you going to do, Cas?"
Castiel: "I don't know. Isn't that amazing?"
- And Cas now gets to enjoy free will. And it's part of the whole theme of "how to live even though life is pointless" - Meg needs a reason to wake up in the morning, but Castiel delights in not knowing what to do at all.
Oh man, I had forgotten that they used a completely different actress for Mrs. Tran in S7.
Kevin: "It's okay, mom, they brought me back. They're keeping me safe."
Secretly!Edgar: "I don't think that's true. Rock beats scissor. Leviathan beats Angel."
- The fact that Leviathan can kill angels is legitimately scary to me. I kind of wish they had introduced that fact earlier maybe... or maybe not, maybe it doesn't matter. But it makes sense now, why god would lock them away, if they were more powerful than his soldiers.
Okay, that was a long one. I'm not sure I do a good job of explaining anything... I feel like someone much better with words and literary analysis could do a much better job of this write up than I did. I kind of have to laugh at myself sometimes when I'm doing these meta-posts, because I'm the girl who consistently got 66% on all my English essays in High School because "hey, you tried and you can spell and use good grammar, but you really suck at analyzing things." :P (Though, I was good at analyzing things through transformative works... one time I wrote a poem about Hamlet instead of an essay [I had a very nice teacher who made a special exception for me]. It was my first A in literary analysis, because I actually hit and mentioned all the major themes without even realizing it!)
So, two episodes left, and two days left to watch them if I want to get this done before November. I also still have to work for a living. SHOULD BE FUN! :)