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butterflyShort version:
I LOVED IT.
Long version:
I feel like I jinxed things by saying that Sam might be willing to go back to old patterns as part of the ‘things are as dark as they can get!’ act 2 closing. Sorry, guys, my bad. On the plus side, it was just as unsuccessful as Sam’s attempts always are, so there’s that! Really, I wouldn’t worry about it, though – it’s both completely useless and also a sign that Sam is in a horribly vulnerable headspace.
So, Dean has been consumed by the Mark, as we’ve had foreshadowing in regards to all season (as much of the early foreshadowing that we thought was about Gadreel was also for Dean). The question then being… well, what happened to Cain after he killed himself? Because he wasn’t a demon forever (ETA: okay, yes, he was. YOU ALL KNOW WHAT I MEAN THOUGH. lol).
On that note, the show literally did everything except actually say, “Cas is in love with Dean”. When we had that bit in the previouslys about 'one guy’, I figured we were going to get something and we did, oh boy. The naked Deans in 9x22 were definitely really in the original script, if this is what Metatron had to tell Cas in the finale. I’m not going to bother saying, “subtextually, you can read that” Cas is in love with Dean. Cas is in love with Dean. And how heartbreaking for him to hear that Dean is dead and have no ability to go to him and fix things (“I miss my wings”).
Sadly, because they have not yet sucked faces and they’re both guys, I’m sure that vast amounts of the viewership will continue to be vaguely baffled and place everything relating to Dean and Cas into the 'brotherly/bromance/eh-i-don’t-know-what-it-is-but-it-ain’t-gay’ bucket. Because the world sucks.
But having gone this far in Act 2… there is an Act 3 looming and Carver… is pretty obviously on our side.
Oh! Remember my epiphany after “Road Trip”? So, that was when I began to understand what was going on and, maybe, just a little… I started to put my faith back into the story – a decision which was borne out, to me, by the rest of S9, which has been so strongly connected to S8 and had such a strong structure.
Now what I saw in “Road Trip” was a flat-out queer narrative. Gadreel and Abner were a queer narrative. A subtextual one. That was the episode that made me rethink some of the earlier stuff. Huh, I said to myself, are they actually making a season that (in part) revolves the meaning of subtext? The episodes since then only made me feel that idea more keenly and then 9x18 basically confirmed it when they had Metatron specifically call out 'subtext’ as one of the important elements of a story.
The show was having a conversation with us about subtext. They’ve been having it all season.
Much like Dean’s potential progress in S8 turned into a descent plotline when Carver knew he’d have (at least) S9, so did the Dean and Cas narrative. That’s the reason the subtext switched gears from 'clearer and clearer by the moment’ to 'simmering under the surface’. Hence the… obstacles (to put it politely). Things had to happen quickly in the early part of S8 in case Carver didn’t get to do his 3-year story. But, once he knew he had more time, he slowed down.
That’s television for you. I remember that happened just about every year on Smallville because they kept getting unexpectedly renewed.
But I get it now. Doesn’t mean there aren’t… bad choices along the way, some that I very much wish hadn’t happened, but the overall arc… yeah. It really works for me.
Back to 9x23:
Dean is finally hitting that rock bottom that we kept hoping and hoping would happen earlier in the season (but which didn’t because – second act of a three-act story!). He’s a demon. He’s a monster. He’s everything he’s most terrified of being. That is kinda how you do a rock bottom, yeah.
And, potentially, he’s linked to Crowley specifically. We’ll find out next season.
…I really hope Crowley gets a very bloody death in S10.
Gadreel accomplishes the sacrifice that Dean was trying to do – takes himself out in order to take down Metatron.
I hope, like with S9, S10 starts right where it ended, because we really need those first moments.
…didn’t Kim or someone say that we’d see familiar faces in 9x23? That totally didn’t happen. Unless she meant Hannah, but we don’t really know Hannah that well (speaking of: omg! love for Hannah’s storyline throughout her 3 episodes. Sorry that I ever thought you were a Metatron-mole, bb).