Season 8 of SPN

butterflydm:

supernaturalblargh:

deathbycoldopen:

butterflydm:

I’m going to be posting quite a bit more about this in the near-future, but wanted to get out some thoughts:

What Sam and Dean said during the church at the end was very interesting to me because of what was said and wasn’t said. Because Sam is a little jealous of Cas, just like he was jealous of Benny.

“I killed Benny to save you,” Dean protests. He’s willing to let Crowley go! He would never put anything in front of Sammy!

Except that’s not true. And he doesn’t specifically refute Sam’s mention of an angel the way he does Sam’s mention of a vampire. Because Sam might not know that Dean was willing to die rather than leave Purgatory without Cas but Dean knows (and, of course, the audience knows; there’s a reason we had those flashbacks). The part of him that spent months searching Cas out rather than go home to his brother has been pushed back and back in Dean’s head under the weight of all of the evidence that Cas doesn’t have the same need for him, but Dean knows it’s there. It was there in 8x19, when Naomi played on his deepest pains and fears regarding Cas. It was there in his eyes tonight, when Cas told him — told him as something that was going to happen, something that Dean had no right to have input in — that he was going to lock himself up in Heaven with the rest of the angels. That Dean would never see him again. “I need you”, Dean told Cas but he’s seen no evidence that it meant a damn thing to Cas (and, of course, that’s why it was also so important for the audience to see last week how much it did matter to Cas that he’d hurt Dean). Because it doesn’t matter — searching for Castiel in Purgatory, praying to him, begging him. It didn’t make a difference (as far as Dean could see).

When Sam had to choose between another life and staying with Dean, he chose Dean. When Cas had to choose — well, from what Dean could see, he chose not-Dean. He chose a life separate from Dean.

Ugh, the tension between what the characters know and what the audience knows is so thick.

I thought it was really, really interesting that Sam said “another angel” before he said “another vampire,” and that it was almost in passing.  Because that conversation was so raw, it was everything that they don’t say to each other on a daily basis.  Just last week we had Sam defending Cas, but now we see hints that maybe Sam is a little bit jealous of Cas- not as much as he was of Benny, and not enough that he isn’t Cas’ friend, but just enough that he brings it up in this horribly raw, desperate conversation between the two of them.  In a way, it reminds me of the jealousy Dean shows whenever Sam gets a girlfriend or a romantic connection: outwardly, he’s very supportive and even pushes Sam to pursue the connection further, but there are moments when it’s clear he doesn’t want Sam to choose someone over him.  It’s the kind of jealousy you get when your best friend/person you share most of your life with gets a significant other, and suddenly you feel like a third wheel.

The other thing is, too, is that while Sam definitely feels a little bit of jealousy when it comes to Cas, he encouraged Dean to go with Cas to help him shut the gates of Heaven. He definitely wants Dean to maintain his relationship with Cas, and he knows they’ve been at odds with each other and everything’s a giant mess and feelings are involved, but he’s not so jealous that he would have asked Dean to stay with him, even though he’s about complete the Third Trial. Basically, Sam is fab.

Very true! Jealousy, affection, and understanding can all co-exist. We’ve seen Sam show little bits of jealousy earlier this season, too (mostly in 8x08), but the understanding is stronger. And he can sympathize with Cas in a way he wasn’t really able to with Benny because Cas is another ‘bad brother’, as it were — Cas is in the same boat as Sam when it comes to needing/wanting Dean’s forgiveness.