You can count on me. No, really. I think.

[sistermagpie]

How fun was SPN last night? A lot. And I feel like the best fun is yet to come as people write about it, because this ep had a lot going on in it. Not only were there clever plans being put into operation right and left (almost everyone had a moment of "surprise, I've been playing you!"), scenes from the past were recalled and switched around. Seems like there's probably many different strands to look at in the ep. One that occurred to me today was the theme of faith in another person.

This ep really showed how the Team of Team Free Will acts as an entity. We saw how the different members relied on each other and carried each other when necessary, especially when it came to faith. As long as someone on the team has faith in someone else, the team went on. When you don’t have that faith, you fake it. That was a fitting theme in an ep following the one where we learn God has stopped taking calls, so faith in him (or at least faith in a particular kind of help from him) is pointless. It’s fun to look at the way faith plays out in different characters in this ep and wonder if there’s any foreshadowing there.

Dean
The person who’s defined himself by doing his duty by others is suddenly the one everyone’s chasing down to keep from abandoning the team. It was wonderfully ironic to remember how many times Dean had been yelled into shape by someone ordering him to stop thinking about himself and do his duty when it was exactly that thinking that was driving him away this time. As Sam put it, "Could you stop thinking about sacrificing yourself for ten minutes?"

Still, ultimately with no bright ideas of his own, he fell back on his oldest motivation. (Though I also think that Zachariah being such a tool brought out his instinctual stubbornness as well.) He did the right thing because his younger brothers were counting on him.

The new wrinkle was Dean confessing that he didn’t feel like he could count on Sam. Dean spent last season sure that Sam was being tricked by a demon, and he’s been on the receiving end of an angel’s campaign to get a vessel. Dean feels, partly out of habit, that it’s up to him to make sure Sam doesn’t say yes, that Sam will fight his attempts to do what’s best for him, and he thinks Lucifer has him beat. As harsh as it was to say, it was something that had to be dealt with, so it’s good he said it. Sam’s response to Dean saying he didn’t think he could count on Sam was basically: fine, then I’ll count on you. Completely the right answer in the short-term. The long-term still must be dealt with later.

Sam

yourlibrarian did a great post about the ep here that makes this point about the end conversation:

"I think it was no coincidence that when Sam releases Dean from the panic room, he doesn’t say Dean is his brother, he says he’s his big brother. Whether he was speaking from the heart, or being smarter than he admitted, it certainly worked.

Thus, I found Dean's conversation in the car to be rather contradictory. Because there Dean talks about how he realizes Sam is grown up now and not the kid he once was. In other words, Sam could be seen, and counted on, as an equal partner. But his justification for that is because Sam is "grown up" enough to believe in Dean. It seems to me that Sam has generally believed in Dean, but has been less convinced that Dean ever understood where he was coming from. And given Dean's line about leaving Sam to rot in the panic room, he wasn't always wrong about it either."

I love the detail here that Sam says Dean is still his "big brother." The question of whether or not Sam will hold out should be a source of uneasiness. Not because Sam’s evil or weak or doomed, but because it’s unknown. He hasn’t faced the test yet. He doesn’t even know what the test will be. So for this ep both he and Dean took refuge in their earlier roles of big brother who doesn’t want to let the little brother down, and little brother who knows his big brother never would let him down.

Perhaps Dean’s words about Sam being grown up aren’t really about faith in Sam but acceptance of the reality that whether or not he thinks Sam’s up to the job, it’s still Sam’s job. If Dean’s going to help Sam with it, he needs to get to know grown up Sam. This return to the way they counted on each other as kids worked now, but they need to learn something else.

So Sam and Dean wind up representing two different situations, each requiring a different kind of faith. The other characters in the ep reflect back different aspects of them as well.

Adam
Zack sends Adam to his brothers with a warning: they only care about each other. They are "erotically codependent." Adam is not their family. And Adam is ready to believe him, having never met them and only knowing his dad as a distant figure. But any time a plan of Zachariah’s gets close to working he blows it by gloating and reminding us how little he understands the humans he despises, here by revealing that his whole plan actually rested on knowing Dean and Sam *would* save Adam because everything he said before was a lie. Zack has nothing but contempt for the word family, but his triumphant speech about it being the Winchester weakness gives Adam time to process their rescue for what it is: proof that he can count on these guys. If Adam ever returns, he won’t forget it. (Even if they were unsuccessful in saving him, Adam for the first time believed it was possible.)

Adam doesn’t believe Sam and Dean will help him, but they help him anyway. Perhaps this might echo God’s role later on.

Bobby
Bobby, like Dean, is on the edge of despair. He claims the only thing keeping him from suicide is that he promised Dean he wouldn’t give up. Like Dean in the ep, Bobby demonstrates that when you no longer believe in anyone else, other people believing in you will do. When Bobby can no longer be there for himself, he’s there for Dean. The show has always balanced duty to others (more associated with Dean) with being true to yourself (more associated with Sam). The state Bobby is in isn’t ideal, but when he lost faith in himself, it was there.

Castiel
Castiel’s spent his entire existence (how many millennia?) depending on God and he’s still reeling from the information that God has abandoned him (he thinks). Castiel doesn’t have much practice being true to himself. When he gets frustrated, his instinct is always to feel like the humans have led him astray.

Castiel plays out another scenario both like and unlike Dean’s. Castiel’s story so far mostly involved learning that most every angel has betrayed their purpose (including him now), and then switching to humans who are by definition undependable in angel terms.

Still, at the end of this ep, he has to take out several angels so that Dean and Sam can go i. Castiel gives Dean a short speech obviously meant to parallel Dean’s to his brother: Unlike Sam, he doesn’t believe that Dean won’t give in to Michael. But he’ll carve a sigil in his chest with a box cutter anyway. It’s better than watching Dean fail.

This is all very Dean-centric, but I think that’s a natural result of the ep being about Dean’s deal with the angels who are an extreme version of a lot of the ideals Dean represents—self-sacrifice, following orders, relying on learned rules for morality, knowing you are good because you are doing official good things, faith in God. It remains to be seen if we’ll see a different scenario once Lucifer starts in on Sam, because demons would presumably represent the opposite extreme: doing what’s right for you, challenging authority, deciding right and wrong for yourself, frustration at being told you are bad, faith in yourself.

Comments

[oselle.livejournal.com]

This is an excellent post and I really want to respond to it but my head is still full of !!OMG PINK CANDY HEARTS HEARTS HEARTS!! over that episode and they're clogging up my brainwaves. I'll do a trepanning and hopefully have something intelligent to say.

[fanaddict.livejournal.com]

Hi, here by way of my reading lists' reading lists, since there can never be too much talk of this ep. :) Hope it's ok!

I think it's so interesting on a show that has the literal Apocalypse happening, has Lucifer rising and God playing the arcades in Atlantic City, where angels and demons roam the land - faith is presented as more about family and people believing in each other as a way to fight the darkness. I guess when God gives you a restraining order so as not be bothered by the End Times you have to take your faith where you can get it.

Perhaps Dean’s words about Sam being grown up aren’t really about faith in Sam but acceptance of the reality that whether or not he thinks Sam’s up to the job, it’s still Sam’s job.

Team Free Will has consistently said screw destiny, but last night was the first time Dean seemed to believe it and I think that's where the end conversation with Sam came from. In S3, Dean never believed Sam could get him out of the deal - and he did end up in Hell as was destined/foreshadowed all season. In S4, he knew stuff was hinky with Sam and that led to them not working well together (to say the least) and the destiny of Lucifer rising was fulfilled - as was foreshadowed all season. This season seemed like the same old issues, with the foreshadowing being a brotherly cage fight between Lucifer and Michael wearing Sam&Dean somehow. Suddenly, though, Dean is saying to Sam that he does believe Sam will fight to keep Lucifer out - not that he may not fail, but that he has faith in Sam as an adult to make the right choices. In that last conversation, the foreshadowing of the entire season was turned on it's head and human free will replaced destiny as the driving force.

here by revealing that his whole plan actually rested on knowing Dean and Sam *would* save Adam because everything he said before was a lie

It's interesting - I came away with a different take home message. Yes, Zachariah knew they would come - there's an innocent in danger plus he's family, no question they would come. However, he was also saying when push comes to shove, Sam&Dean will choose each other over the entire world as they have time and again. In the end, Dean helped Adam up and made sure the innocent was ok, but it was Sam he half-carried out, which is why Adam didn't make it out the door. Of course Dean tried to go back and get him, but the time when he could have saved Adam was when he chose who to help out the door. So... Zachariah likes to manipulate the truth definitely, but I wouldn't say everything he said about Sam&Dean was a lie just because they came to the rescue like he knew they would.

Castiel’s story so far mostly involved learning that most every angel has betrayed their purpose (including him now), and then switching to humans who are by definition undependable in angel terms.

Castiel was awesome last night! He felt betrayed by everyone and basically gave everyone a beat down. He's certainly the character that has changed the most I think - he went from Team Heavenly Destiny to Team Free Will after all. I think all he's got left is fight, because he's lost all faith.

I think it would be very interested how this story would unfold in another country or era, some time/place where not as much emphasis is put on free will and nuclear family as we see in the US today. In the past, the concept of faith and freewill have sometimes been supportive and sometimes combative of each other. I mean, in Calvinism or Islam or pre-Rennaissnce era religion in general, the concept of fate is tied around your neck from birth and it's a matter of faith that you will somehow find your destiny. In Protestant groups other than Calvin, free will is essential for choosing faith/doing good and there isn't a destiny concept. In the US, that idea of religious/moral choice is important and that's why it's so big on the show, but I wonder how it's viewed by people who's cultural/religious background don't support it.

[yourlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Bobby demonstrates that when you no longer believe in anyone else, other people believing in you will do.

That's a great point, yes.

Castiel’s story so far mostly involved learning that most every angel has betrayed their purpose (including him now), and then switching to humans who are by definition undependable in angel terms.

I think this is a really good point, too. Castiel has been faced with little but betrayal since last season -- betrayal by comrades, betrayal by higher-ups, betrayal by God, and now Dean. It's quite a plate full.

[static-pixie.livejournal.com]

Perhaps Dean’s words about Sam being grown up aren’t really about faith in Sam but acceptance of the reality that whether or not he thinks Sam’s up to the job, it’s still Sam’s job. If Dean’s going to help Sam with it, he needs to get to know grown up Sam. This return to the way they counted on each other as kids worked now, but they need to learn something else.

Yeah, it really came down to trusting someone else to make the choice they had to make rather than trusting that someone would make the right choice, didn't it? That's interesting, I hadn't thought about it that way. But it also makes sense with Castiel's actions, since they seemed mainly to be done so that Dean could make a choice and not because he knew Dean would make the right choice. And also I think Castiel acted the way he did partially because he realized that when it seems everyone has failed you, the best thing you can do is make a choice that you alone can live with and hope. I don't think he was hoping to in any way guilt Dean into making the right call the way Dean might have done Sam in a similar situation. They seem to be setting him up to be able to go it alone while pushing Sam and Dean to figure out their co-dependence and how to really work as a team, since, ironically it seems each brother has almost always made choices out of a sense of isolation. Dean's sense of duty mainly seems to be about Dean's need to be needed since, as he points out here, he hasn't really tracked the emotional growth and needs of the person he's most responsible for looking out for. And of course Sam's choices have come out of a sense of being misunderstood and trying to find a connection with a better and brighter world outside of the one he's grown up in. It's all fascinating.

Great meta!

[zazreil.livejournal.com]

I love a lot of what you wrote but I don't agree with everything in the last paragraph. Dean represents self sacrifice true,placing his faith outside himself and on the surface it would seem following orders, but Dean always fails to follow orders, even his father's when they conflict with his own view of morality. Dean would never be the soldier who committed an attrocity because he was folloing orders. Dean does not rely on learned rules for morality, though I do agree he has judged himself by those rules on occasion, rather he lets his heart and soul guide him when his head might give him other advice. His whole agony over whether to give Michael free reign was his head fighting with his heart and winning because he had lost all faith, in himself and in others. When he regains his faith his heart wins.

Sam on the other han, I agree Sam represensts putting yourself first and it might seem that he represents challenging authority because he challenges his father and Dean, but what Sam was challenging when he challenged his father was living a life outside of society's rules. Sam wanted to be part of society, not normal or average but exceptional and respected part of the functioning clockwork of life. He doesn't want to be outside the rules to be considered a freak, he has a good grounding in right or wrong but he stumbles when the question is not clear cut. Jus in Bello for example, Sam was actually considering sacrificing Nancy, the good of the many out weighing the one or the few, accept that phrase is to represent your own decision to sacrifice yourself not to sacrifice another, Dean understood that instinctively, Sam struggled, because the rules in human history are not clear and his own moral compass was not as well developed. One could say that Dean having to live outside the rules had more opportunities to develop this inner compass than Sam who abided by them. The question is has Sam developed enough of his own moral compass that he can stand against Lucifer or will Lucifer find a way to reach down, trigger Sam's anger and convince him.

When Cas's faith in God was lost in Dark Side of the Moon, he looked to Dean, but with Dean turning to Michael, Cas felt like he had no one to put his faith in. I hope with Dean not falling that Cas will find a way to renew his faith.

All in all I think it goes back to a paraphrase of something Cas said to Dean in Season 4 when Dean said he didn't believe in God, Cas responded something like God believed in Dean, well I think God has faith in Dean, Cas, Sam, Bobby and Mankind. We just need to prove his faith in us

Zaz

Loved 5.18 (espeically Zach being a tool!)

[su-darklily.livejournal.com]

I was in total glee when I first saw 5.18! Wasn't that the best beginning sequence ever? Especially the double take on the 'pink filthy hu.. what?'line by the fellow 'pink slip' sympathizer. lol

And there's been so much to catch up on - have you seen the number of meta posts for this ep? I had a hard time trying to figure out where to start! (You're first btw)

So, starting with my fav sentence -

"The person who’s defined himself by doing his duty by others is suddenly the one everyone’s chasing down to keep from abandoning the team."

What a lovely description for Dean, 'defined himself by doing his duty by others'. Frankly, I thought it was about time that someone else had a go at fulfilling their duty to Dean and I was very very impressed by Sam in this ep. Wasn't he just perfect? He played the "big brother" card!

That was a particularly 'fun' moment because to date, Sam's entire relationship with Dean was focused on how he wasn't the 'little brother' - I always felt that Sam's whole problem with Dean was that he wasn't relating to him just as a brother, or even a 'big' brother but that he also had to relate to Dean as a caretaker, a de facto parent which does askew the power balance in sibling relationships.

This is the first time that Sam really acknowledged this key component of Dean's character. Probably because till now, Sam was so busy trying to establish himself as an independent and free agent that he didn't really notice and understand just how much Dean needed his approval. It's just ironic that it took Dean's 'loss of faith' in Sam first before Sam could see this.

I've never been too fussed by either the throwing away of the amulet or by Dean telling Sam that he couldn't trust him because to me, those actions aren't necessarily a denial of Sam, so much as a denial of the way Dean thought of Sam. Yes Dean's bitter and yes he's angry but at the end of the day, look at 5.18! Dean is still first and foremost Sam's older brother, and nothing's going to change that. As long as Sam doesn't lose track of that either, I don't worry too much about the 'long run'.

Check all the crisis points in their relationship and you'll see that they were all generated by Sam's unwillingness to accept that he was as tied to the family business as Dean, or Sam's rejection of Dean's authority (I'm not saying that Dean's perfect btw, just that Dean's never been the cause of the 'fractures' in their relationship).

I warn you now, if I end up with a post on Sam and Dean's relationship to justify the above - I've already had to delete a whole bunch of points re the various stages through each season because I'm over the word limit - I'm totally going to have dedicate that one to you!