The Monster at the End of This Book

[feliciakw]

I watched TMatEotB this morning, and a couple things of interest struck me, in light of S5.

Let's see if I can put them coherently.


First, let me back up a little bit. "It's a Terrible Life." Quite possibly one of my favorite eps of the season. Something fresh, new, different, "re-meeting" the characters, but knowing the real deal. Role reversal of a sort. Dean in a suit. Death by microwave. Sam saving Dean from getting his brain scrambled. Bright colors for a change.

I also like how Zach tells Dean he'll be everything he's destined to be. Which is true, and yet not in the way that Zach expects. Dean fulfills his "destiny" and does so by exercising his free will. I kinda really love that.

This is a Sera Gamble ep. It's eps like these that make me wonder why people are so worried about her taking over the show. She's got a great sense of the characters, and I think she treats them pretty evenhandedly, even if she does have (by Jensen's own observation) the reputation of being a Sam!girl.

Now, about TMatEotB:

1.) The Gospel of Winchester. The word gospel literally means good news. So the Gospel of Winchester would be the Good News of Winchester. The Winchesters' Good News. The good news being what? The prevention of the Apocalypse and saving the world from destruction, of course. That's as thinky as I got on that one.

2.) This episode speaks so well to Dean's philosophy that he doesn't believe in destiny, and actually speaks pretty well to my own thoughts on the matter. Let's look at how things progressed once they reached a point beyond what Chuck had written.

Sam, buying into and embracing Chuck's predictions (because Sam has always been afraid of/resigned to his destiny), destroys the hex bags and puts the welcome mat out for Lilith. Then what does Dean do? He prays. And in doing so changes the playing field. Castiel gives him the inside track on what he needs to do--not to "unwrite" the prophecy, but how to effectively respond to the prophesied circumstances. Dean goes to get Chuck, who says, "You aren't supposed to be here." Dean, exercising his free will to keep Sam from making a deal. (A deal, which, btw, would send both Sam and Dean to Hell.) What if Dean had sat back and said, "Oh, it's prophecy, it can't be stopped"? Sam would have made the deal, the Boys would have gone to Hell, and Zach & Co. would have to find another way to start the Apocalypse. Instead of sitting back and not doing anything about the situation, or leaving Sam to his fate, Dean responded, used Castiel's intel, and saved his brother (and himself) from the deal.

Now, it could be said that that's how it was always supposed to happen, and Chuck just hadn't seen it yet. Meh, I'm not so sure. They hadn't been able to change the specific circumstances--staying at the "RE D" motel, eating bacon cheeseburger, the Impala's window being broken out. Sam eager for a showdown with Lilith. But Dean's response to the circumstances determined the final outcome.

This falls in line pretty well with how I tend to look at "destiny." It is true that we cannot always control the circumstances we find ourselves in. However, we can decide how we respond to said circumstances. "Destiny" puts us someplace; how we respond is our own choice. How does that fit in with God's plan? God's plans always come to pass. Whether or not we are the agent by which His plans are accomplished is our choice. He can choose us, and we can say no. He'll find someone else, and we lose out on the blessing of taking part.

It's kind of like a saying I once read: What we are is God's gift to us. What we become is our gift to God. "Destiny" vs. free will. Not entirely mutually exclusive, but free will tends to have the final say on our ultimate outcome, by virtue of the choices we make.

How much do I love Dean in this ep? So very, very much.

Comments

[blacklid.livejournal.com]

I think this is the first time I've read that Sam would have made that deal for real. Interesting. While I assumed that the deal would be made because of Sam was doing, I thought it was more a case where he was trying to trick Lilith into a vulnerable situation so that he could kill her... and likely would have ended up getting double-crossed if Dean hadn't interfered. You think he was really willing to sell himself and Dean both down the river? ... Man, that's makes it even darker.

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

You're right about Sam trying to kill Lilith. He makes a play for the knife as soon as he has the opportunity, which says that he doesn't intend to go through with the deal; he's trying to trick Lilith. Then Lilith turns turns the knife on him, and she's about to gank him when Dean and Chuck show up.

What if Dean hadn't shown up? What if the fight ended in a stalemate? Or would one of them have been victorious? Dunno. If Dean and Chuck hadn't shown up, it would have been Lilith and Sam, mano a mano, so who knows how things would have played out. Would he have been willing to make the deal then? Probably not. Would he have made it unwillingly, with the intention of trying to double-cross her? (My brain is starting to hurt.) His primary goal was to trap and kill Lilith, but who knows how it would have played out if he'd failed. (The way things were going, it looked like Lilith would have killed Sam, which was probably her primary goal anyway, and the offer of a deal might well have been a ruse.)

I'm sorry that's what you got out of my post, that I was painting Sam's primary intention as making the deal. That was only one option that he had. His primary intention is always to kill Lilith.

But either way (Sam making the deal or Sam being killed by Lilith), the point is that Dean's free will choice to interfere saved Sam (and himself) for the time being.

I hope that explains it a little better. I'm sorry if I muddied the waters.

Unless you like darker. :)

[girlyghoul70.livejournal.com]

Me? I like darker! Oh you weren't asking me... never mind. I haven't watched this episode in full for a while because it messes up on my Disc (sigh) I can really only get to the part about the Dean picking at the Pink Flower Band-Aids... so am I going crazy- or do the boys have a conversation at the end about Sam taking Lilith's deal and what it would have meant. If I'm remembering correctly, Dean wasn't really that concerned that Sam would offer both of their purty purty heads up for killin' if it meant saving the World. The kicker is, I think the deal was for Lilith to back off on breaking seals or, just to take herself out of the picture. That's where those demons are so tricksy. Who's to say Lucifer wouldn't have another patsy up his sleeve to go happy seal breaking. So, the deal wouldn't have been such a bargin after all.

Still, it seemed Sam's real plan all along was to not go through with the deal and to kill Lilith himself. Yeah, that could have backfired pretty easily, but Sam was in a state of believing that not only did the killing of Lilith rest on his broad, broad shoulders. But also that he WAS strong enough and capable of killing her. He was wrong on all counts and as usual Big Brother knew best.

And Castiel... soooooo clever. Telling Dean what to do without actually telling him what to do... Oh how I love that nerdy guy with wings :-)!!!

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

You can't watch your disc??? Bummer.

Yes, there is a scene wherein Dean asks Sam if he considered, even for a moment, taking the deal. And his tone was more curiosity than accusation. Sam said Lilith would have found a way to weasel out. Which, as you point out, she would have.

But as far as getting Lucifer out of the cage, I think it's at this point that Lilith changes her mind about the whole thing. She's found out that she's supposed to be the last seal, and if demons are anything, they're self-serving, so I think her purpose, up until the very end (which is where it gets a little bzuh? for me) is to get rid of Sam, first as competition, now as Lucifer's vessel. Yeah, there would be no Apocalypse, but she and her demons would be running loose all over the globe.

I also kinda feel like I should write an addendum to this entry, but I'm not sure if it'd be of interest.

Hey, you want that I tell my folks about your LJ? I'm sure mi madre would be interested in your entries.

[girlyghoul70.livejournal.com]

I can watch most of the disc, but it freezes in parts of Monster at the End of This Book and dies altogether around the time Castiel pops in and talks about how much he admires Chuck's work. The freezey bits get so bad just before that that I usually can't stand to make it past the Pink Band-Aid scene.

Sure if your folks wanna peek into my thinky thoughts, let 'em at it. Right now there's only pictures of kitties and the devastation of my parents' deck (Kilt by TREE~!) But eventually I'll post more. More thinky thoughts, more fic-y fic, and yadda yadda yadda.

[girlyghoul70.livejournal.com]

OOH! And P.S. You still owe me a BODY PART!

(And imagine how sad I was upon realizing I currently have no icons appropriate for demanding a body part. Samifer will have to do!)

[girlyghoul70.livejournal.com]

Sorry, totally off the topic at hand but I love that icon! Love the Simpsons... and that guy was great... esp. when it was funny hat day! Hee hee!