The Monster at the End of This Book
Aug. 9th, 2010 10:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feliciakwI 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.
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.
