Supernatural meta

[ivyfic]

I 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 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!)

Comments

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

That's an excellent theory about the ritual. Makes perfect sense. Though I think the psychic gifts may be from the demon rather than intrinsic, or at least the demon awakens them in the children. Except most of the children have had their gifts awaken in the past six months--so it may be that killing Jess and anointing Sam with her blood completed the ritual for *all* the children and activated each and every one of them.

I agree, I think the FBI thing may be set up to force Sam out. He's got Dean to protect him and keep him grounded, and as long as that's the case the demon can't control/corrupt Sam. So send the feds after Dean, take him out, and now Sam's wide open.

I told jendaby that they needed to get across the border and pronto at the end of the episode. But they won't, of course. Not sure how this storyline will end. They could somehow fake their deaths, particularly with shapeshifters, and get the files closed, but those APBs would still be floating around. It'll be interesting to see where they go from here.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Except most of the children have had their gifts awaken in the past six months--so it may be that killing Jess and anointing Sam with her blood completed the ritual for *all* the children and activated each and every one of them.
True, but I've been resisting this since it makes Sam the most specialist psychic of them all, and he's not event he most powerful of the ones that we have seen. Or the one that the demon has focused on recently. My belief that the gifts are in some way intrinsic comes from the fact that not all of the psychics had nursery fires. That implies to me that the demon didn't know about all of them at the time. Or there could be some other reason. But then that begs the question -- why psychic kids all of a sudden? What was so great about 1983?

I hadn't even thought of the FBI plot as a way to take out Dean specifically, though that certainly makes sense. I was thinking more as a way for the demon to use the laws resources to hunt down and capture the Winchesters.

Somehow I don't think Supernatural: Mexico would really fly. Since it was pitched as Luke Skywalker and Han Solo do Route 66. And it's filmed in Vancouver.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

Actually, it doesn't mean Sam's the most powerful, just that he was the one the demon got to first--if a second ritual was required to activate everyone at once, any of the "children" probably would have sufficed.
And I agree that the demon may not have known about all of them. It also may have been trying different methods to see which worked best for its purposes. For example, with Ava it obviously left her alone before she met Sam, and now it grabbed her to see what it could do with her.

[dotfic.livejournal.com]

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.

Well, yes. But as you said, it wouldn't be SPN anymore.

Personally, I'd like to see them at least address the car problem -- my prediction is a color change. But there are so many things I need the show to address and I haven't gotten it.

Your theories make sense. I've decided to ignore the mytharc though, except insomuch as it makes the boys angsty. Because I have no faith at all that TPTB really have a plan.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Most of the things I'm picking at aren't fundamental to the mytharc (I'm not even going to try to figure out what the demon wants with Sam), and I know they're all things that happened for story reasons, not because it made the most sense for the demon. Jess died at the end of the pilot to give Sam a kick in the pants and to make people want to watch the next episode. Ava got yanked when she did to be more tragic motivation for Sam (women in refrigerators!) and to add some more mystery to the show, not because that was absolutely the best time for the demon to do whatever it is he's doing with her.

I'm basically script-doctoring. I just think it's kind of cool that it could make sense, especially with the drops of blood on the forehead, which I'm sure was unintentional. But if they wanted to, they could retcon it.

Whatever. It makes sense in my head. *lalalalalala*

Somehow I doubt they'd even paint the Impala. Cause - just - no. Unless they paint it yellow and we can call it the bananamobile.

[dotfic.livejournal.com]

I just think it's kind of cool that it could make sense, especially with the drops of blood on the forehead, which I'm sure was unintentional.

*nods* That's kind of how I think of it when I'm not ignoring it. It gives the illusion of meaning, even if it's really just plot-plot-plot. It's a smoke and mirrors trick, but it requires skill.

Unless they paint it yellow and we can call it the bananamobile.

Bwaha! (Funny, I had this ficlet in my head where Sam painted the car yellow and Dean complained it looked like a bananna. You read my mind!)

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

There actually was this little old blue-haired lady in the church I grew up in who had a yellow porsche that we called the bananamobile (she bought it cheap). Just like in Richard Scarry.