Supernatural meta
Jan. 30th, 2007 11:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ivyficI have saved up all my Supernatural meta for one big post, so here you go. Warning for abuse of italics.
Big Supernatural Theory #1: The Demon
In watching the pilot and listening to the commentary, it is clear that a number of the key events in it that shape the series were chosen not to serve the mytharc, but to serve the particular story-telling needs of the pilot. In particular, the death of Mary Winchester and of Jess. In the pilot, Mary dies to give the Winchesters a tragic upbringing and thrust them into the world of the supernatural. Jess dies to force Sam out onto the road with Dean.
From later episodes we know that several mothers have died on the ceiling of their six-month-old baby's nursery in the same way as Mary. From just the pilot, it would be reasonable to come to the conclusion that Mary died in this way because she happened into the nursery at the wrong time and was protecting her baby (a la James and Lily Potter). What the demon is specifically trying to do is unclear – why kill the mother? Why the fireball? At first blush it looks like he's attacking the baby, but it's clearly not his intent to kill the child. The demon couldn't count on John's intervention to save his son so he must have had a plan to save the baby from the fire. And since this is something he's done in exactly the same way several times, I have to conclude that the death of the mother and the fire are significant in and of themselves.
In other words, it's a ritual.
We haven't specifically seen any other of these rituals, but I am struck by one thing. The mother is put on the ceiling and her stomach ripped open so that the blood drips down into the crib. In the opening scene, though, the blood is not dripping on Sammy. (For all I know, this is a child labor union thing, but I'm going to assume it's deliberate.) Which leads me to Jess's death.
As far as we know, though not all of the psychic kids had their mothers killed, Sam is the only one who had a second person die in the same way. And when Jess dies, the blood does drip onto Sam's forehead.
So here's my theory: the demon botched the ritual the first time. There's enough evidence to believe that the psychic abilities are possessed by the children outside of the demon's involvement. But, after Jess's death, Sam's abilities are awoken and only work on things involving the demon. I think this ritual binds the powers of the psychic children to the demon. And because it was not successful the first time, the demon had to use it again on Sam, with Jess, to properly complete it.
Why Jess? I think the mother's blood is specifically powerful. Not just anyone's blood will do. It has to be someone that closely connected to Sam. Why not Dean of John, then? Who knows. Maybe it needs to be a woman. In any case, we know that Sam was ready to propose to Jess. Maybe the demon needed to wait until there was someone that Sam loved and loved him that much before he could make the appropriate sacrifice.
Big Supernatural Theory #2: Spoilers through Night Shifter
First I have to say that I love this plot. I've got a kink for hostage episodes, and I enjoyed this one quite a bit. How I ultimately feel about it depends on how they deal with the plot. They've painted themselves into a bit of a corner. The first season was made up of mostly stand-alone episodes: as Kripke says, the brothers "drive into a different horror film every week." The developments of this season make that formula virtually impossible. The demon's after them, other hunters are after them, and now there's a special FBI task force after them. To ignore these and continue on with the season 1 formula would be absurd. But I have no problem with them changing the rules of the game going forward to include these ongoing elements.
So the cops are after Sam and Dean in a serious way. If this was a fic, I would expect it to turn out the way I thought it did for a moment in this episode: with Sam and Dean dead in a closet. (By the way, that whole scene took rewatching before I realized they were SWAT agents. It just wasn't clear. I was watching it the first time going – wait, they're dead? There are two more shapeshifters? Huh?)
Obviously, the Winchesters have to get out from under the constant scrutiny of the cops. This could happen three ways:
1) They fake their deaths. But hey, we saw this already in "Skin" and it obviously didn't take.
2) They could make the person who is after them believe in what they're doing and let them go. But we've seen that already, too, in "The Usual Suspects," and what this episode is saying is that no matter how many cops they convince, there will always be another one to take over the hunt.
3) Their records could be expunged.
This third one is the only way I could see this plotline being finally resolved (in a season or three). If I were writing it, it would go like this:
Turns out the FBI manhunt is being instigated by a demon-possessed higher up. Our lead guy eventually realizes he's being used as a patsy and enlists the brothers to help him uncover the corruption within the organization. When they finally succeed, he clears their records in recompense. (Anyone follow SG-1? Or X-Files? Sound familiar?)
In the meantime, however, it's not really feasible for the show to continue on as it has been. If you found out the FBI was after you, what would be the first thing you did? Change your appearance, change your names, change your car. Especially the last one. Dean owns one of the most recognizable cars on the planet. I've already been rolling my eyes at the brothers trying to inconspicuously tail people in that thing. Now, the Impala really needs to go. Seriously. For me to not think our leads are complete idiots, Sam and Dean need to sell the Impala and get a completely forgettable, generic, boxy Japanese car, dye their hair, grow beards, and stop going by Sam and Dean.
Of course, if any of these things happened, I would stop watching the show. But it is kind of risky for them to continue on as they have been. If the lead FBI guy knows so much about them, why didn't he find the Impala outside the bank and put some guys on it?
As I've already told![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
trakkie, I loved the outsider perspective on the Winchesters provided by the FBI agent. Asking if John is a white supremacist? (Putting aside for a moment that if he knows so much, he should know John wasn't.) Talking about Dean and Sam's paramilitary upbringing? Yeah, if you look at these two guys, their motel upbringing, their trunk full of weaponry and their clear agenda, they sound scary as fuck. They're the kind of psychopaths that become Unabombers or found the Branch Davidian in Waco. And if you look at all of John's reasons for taking on the hunt, it's only sheer luck that he ended up on the side of the angels. He could just as easily have chosen something hateful and destructive and drawn Sam and Dean into that. So now I really want to see an AU where John is a white supremacist and Sam leaves the family because of it and Dean follows with blind loyalty until he meets and falls in love with Cassie. (I am resisting trying to write this myself. Too many backlogged ideas already!)
Big Supernatural Theory #1: The Demon
In watching the pilot and listening to the commentary, it is clear that a number of the key events in it that shape the series were chosen not to serve the mytharc, but to serve the particular story-telling needs of the pilot. In particular, the death of Mary Winchester and of Jess. In the pilot, Mary dies to give the Winchesters a tragic upbringing and thrust them into the world of the supernatural. Jess dies to force Sam out onto the road with Dean.
From later episodes we know that several mothers have died on the ceiling of their six-month-old baby's nursery in the same way as Mary. From just the pilot, it would be reasonable to come to the conclusion that Mary died in this way because she happened into the nursery at the wrong time and was protecting her baby (a la James and Lily Potter). What the demon is specifically trying to do is unclear – why kill the mother? Why the fireball? At first blush it looks like he's attacking the baby, but it's clearly not his intent to kill the child. The demon couldn't count on John's intervention to save his son so he must have had a plan to save the baby from the fire. And since this is something he's done in exactly the same way several times, I have to conclude that the death of the mother and the fire are significant in and of themselves.
In other words, it's a ritual.
We haven't specifically seen any other of these rituals, but I am struck by one thing. The mother is put on the ceiling and her stomach ripped open so that the blood drips down into the crib. In the opening scene, though, the blood is not dripping on Sammy. (For all I know, this is a child labor union thing, but I'm going to assume it's deliberate.) Which leads me to Jess's death.
As far as we know, though not all of the psychic kids had their mothers killed, Sam is the only one who had a second person die in the same way. And when Jess dies, the blood does drip onto Sam's forehead.
So here's my theory: the demon botched the ritual the first time. There's enough evidence to believe that the psychic abilities are possessed by the children outside of the demon's involvement. But, after Jess's death, Sam's abilities are awoken and only work on things involving the demon. I think this ritual binds the powers of the psychic children to the demon. And because it was not successful the first time, the demon had to use it again on Sam, with Jess, to properly complete it.
Why Jess? I think the mother's blood is specifically powerful. Not just anyone's blood will do. It has to be someone that closely connected to Sam. Why not Dean of John, then? Who knows. Maybe it needs to be a woman. In any case, we know that Sam was ready to propose to Jess. Maybe the demon needed to wait until there was someone that Sam loved and loved him that much before he could make the appropriate sacrifice.
Big Supernatural Theory #2: Spoilers through Night Shifter
First I have to say that I love this plot. I've got a kink for hostage episodes, and I enjoyed this one quite a bit. How I ultimately feel about it depends on how they deal with the plot. They've painted themselves into a bit of a corner. The first season was made up of mostly stand-alone episodes: as Kripke says, the brothers "drive into a different horror film every week." The developments of this season make that formula virtually impossible. The demon's after them, other hunters are after them, and now there's a special FBI task force after them. To ignore these and continue on with the season 1 formula would be absurd. But I have no problem with them changing the rules of the game going forward to include these ongoing elements.
So the cops are after Sam and Dean in a serious way. If this was a fic, I would expect it to turn out the way I thought it did for a moment in this episode: with Sam and Dean dead in a closet. (By the way, that whole scene took rewatching before I realized they were SWAT agents. It just wasn't clear. I was watching it the first time going – wait, they're dead? There are two more shapeshifters? Huh?)
Obviously, the Winchesters have to get out from under the constant scrutiny of the cops. This could happen three ways:
1) They fake their deaths. But hey, we saw this already in "Skin" and it obviously didn't take.
2) They could make the person who is after them believe in what they're doing and let them go. But we've seen that already, too, in "The Usual Suspects," and what this episode is saying is that no matter how many cops they convince, there will always be another one to take over the hunt.
3) Their records could be expunged.
This third one is the only way I could see this plotline being finally resolved (in a season or three). If I were writing it, it would go like this:
Turns out the FBI manhunt is being instigated by a demon-possessed higher up. Our lead guy eventually realizes he's being used as a patsy and enlists the brothers to help him uncover the corruption within the organization. When they finally succeed, he clears their records in recompense. (Anyone follow SG-1? Or X-Files? Sound familiar?)
In the meantime, however, it's not really feasible for the show to continue on as it has been. If you found out the FBI was after you, what would be the first thing you did? Change your appearance, change your names, change your car. Especially the last one. Dean owns one of the most recognizable cars on the planet. I've already been rolling my eyes at the brothers trying to inconspicuously tail people in that thing. Now, the Impala really needs to go. Seriously. For me to not think our leads are complete idiots, Sam and Dean need to sell the Impala and get a completely forgettable, generic, boxy Japanese car, dye their hair, grow beards, and stop going by Sam and Dean.
Of course, if any of these things happened, I would stop watching the show. But it is kind of risky for them to continue on as they have been. If the lead FBI guy knows so much about them, why didn't he find the Impala outside the bank and put some guys on it?
As I've already told
trakkie, I loved the outsider perspective on the Winchesters provided by the FBI agent. Asking if John is a white supremacist? (Putting aside for a moment that if he knows so much, he should know John wasn't.) Talking about Dean and Sam's paramilitary upbringing? Yeah, if you look at these two guys, their motel upbringing, their trunk full of weaponry and their clear agenda, they sound scary as fuck. They're the kind of psychopaths that become Unabombers or found the Branch Davidian in Waco. And if you look at all of John's reasons for taking on the hunt, it's only sheer luck that he ended up on the side of the angels. He could just as easily have chosen something hateful and destructive and drawn Sam and Dean into that. So now I really want to see an AU where John is a white supremacist and Sam leaves the family because of it and Dean follows with blind loyalty until he meets and falls in love with Cassie. (I am resisting trying to write this myself. Too many backlogged ideas already!)