Ramblings On...Dean and Purgatory

Dean's gone off the grid and so have I! Time for a Ramblings On...that really does ramble on about something on my mind!  So...buckle up...

The more I think about October, the more excited I get!  I go to my next Supernatural Con, and Sam and Dean return for the eight season of Supenatural!  On a happy new night too--Hump Day just got literal as Sam and Dean move to Wednesday nights at 9/8c following the new show Arrow.  Sounds like it should be a great night of television.  Supernatural did well paired with Smallville.  Arrow is not a spin off show, but it is about a superhero!  And one in the same universe as Superman...

I am truly excited for the beginning of Season Eight!  I think this is the way cliffhangers should leave us.  I don’t know how many of you know the story, but from what I have read, true cliffhangers became more frequent after Star Trek: TNG’s third season.  Certain accounts indicated that Patrick Stewart had not yet signed for season four when they had to wrap up filming season three.  Because they didn’t know whether or not he would be back, they ended the season in a way that if he didn’t come back, they wouldn’t have to pay him for extra days or concoct some weird story as to why he was gone.  My guess is that Paramount being Paramount also decided to kind of send in a little zinger and let him know that they would keep the show going without him and that they didn’t care if he came back or not...

When I think of cliffhangers, I think of that, or The X-Files Season Four ending where Mulder may or may not have killed himself, or Supernatual Season Three when Dean went to Hell.  Of course with Patrick Stewart, the fans really didn’t know if he would be back...but my point is that these endings left us (or me anyway) worried.  How will our heroes prevail?  How will this work if it does?  How will I last through an entire summer without knowing?  Apprehension to the extreme.

Although I am worried about Dean in Purgatory, I know he’s going to be splendiferous and bad ass and awesome and I can’t wait to see where the writers decide to go!  I am aware that there are a few fans out there that do not share my sentiments, so I wanted to write up this little ditty to throw a few things out there, and see if I can assuage some of their fears at least...maybe...

First off, I know that there are some fans that didn’t understand why Dean and Cas didn’t run out of harm’s way when Dick blew. I admit Dick’s take off was quick, anticlimactic was the word I used in my review.  And Dick even comments in double speak fashion (as in Dick was saying it about Dean and Cas, and Sera was saying it to us about the situation) “That was abrupt, but o.k.”  It seems to me that Cas zapped them to that location so they could get the jump on the other leviathan.  Cas was thrown, separating him from Dean.  I am sure that Cas could have gotten away from Dick before Dick blew, but Dean was pretty much boxed in.  He would have had to go around the table or over it. I’m sure Dean also had his doubts about whether Crowley gave them the right blood and so he needed to see that Dick bought it. I am thinking that Cas stayed on purpose...that Cas understood that Dean was too close to Dick and that he was going to be thrown into Purgatory.  I have never prescribed to the Crazy Cas theory.  I would also say that Cas is not Chekov and beaming two people from two different locations to a different place--I just don’t think he had the time to maneuver that.  It also makes me wonder if Cas maybe knew that the weapon would kick them into Purgatory before they went...He probably wouldn’t have bothered to warn them, since it was the only way to stop Dick and Dean would have gone anyway even knowing the risks.

So...Purgatory then.  I have heard a lot of rumbling about how it should be Sam and Dean in Purgatory and I feel it had to go down the way it did because of several different factors.  First off, I love the growth the brothers have found this season.  There have been rocky moments, but we ended the season with the brothers working solidly, as a cohesive unit, understanding the value of each other and respecting each other in ways they really haven’t before.  In the past their relationship has been less mature.  Sure there were awesomely fun moments, like “Hell House”, but there were also tons of times where Sam would get that “my brother is an idiot” tone.  The boys have grown so much. They value, respect and love each other.  Well, they always loved each other, but the value and the respect I think has matured and grown...

Dramas are dramas for a reason.  Principle relationships have to be tested, they have to  be pushed to and even past the breaking point, then come together again, etc.  Sam and Dean as the main characters with THE important relationship to the show carry this dynamic pretty exclusively.  That means that as close as they are, that closeness has to be tested, that is the nature of drama.  I love that in creating a physical separation at the end of the season, Sera has given respect to their emotional growth.  Sam and Dean would never be apart right now but for extenuating circumstances.  Now, they must find each other again...

On a practical level, having Sam and Dean both in Purgatory would be potentially VERY problematic.  We have seen this season just how cunning the Leviathan are and they were stuck in Purgatory since the beginning of time.  As a matter of fact, the only things that have gotten out of Purgatory have ONLY been able to do so through some type of intervention top side.  The virgin usage spell that brought forth the Mother of All is one, the Purgatory native spell that Cas and Crowley used was another.  H.P. Lovecraft’s group had opened up Purgatory briefly also.  We know that Cas right now has a very “hands off” philosophy regarding intervening with things on Earth.  He has only acted when Dean has guilted/talked/yelled him into it.  If Dean and Sam were in Purgatory, I doubt Cas would go looking for a way to open the door to Purgatory again to get them out.  Bobby is dead, so who else is there top side that would work and research to get them out?  Garth doesn’t seem like the research type, and he isn’t that emotionally invested in what Sam and Dean do.  

With Sam top side, he can research how to get Dean out of Purgatory and create the connections to help him.  He can go into research mode that we know Sam has done often in the past.  This could be a beautiful thing--Sam saving Dean from Purgatory...a success he wasn’t able to achieve earlier when he was unable to save Dean from Hell.

Additionally, if Sam and Dean were both in Purgatory, I think they would be very limited as to what they would be able to do.  Basically hide, I think.  They won’t really have much of an ability to go seeking out good monsters that might help them.  It’s not like they can put out a personals ad.  Desperately Seeking Friendly Monsters.  Yeah, I don’t think so.  Cas brings a unique perspective.  He knows, intimately, about 99 percent of the monsters in Purgatory because they were inside him.  He wouldn’t know the ones Sam and Dean killed after he opened the door, but all the others he would.  This means he would understand a lot about Purgatory, the construction of it, which monsters may help him, which certainly will not...

Cas and Dean will have a lot of enemies in Purgatory, which means that Dean may do a bit of self evaluation, and hopefully not too much of feeling he belongs there because he “is a monster”.  We know he does that from time to time...This will give Cas an ability to be helpful, but on a similar level with Dean. In the brief amount of time we saw Cas and Dean in Purgatory, Cas seemed like old Cas.  He also seemed to be worried.  When he said they were more likely to be ripped to shreds, he said THEY as in Dean and himself.  There are things in Purgatory that can kill Cas.  The head Leviathan that had been posing as Dick Roman is back in Purgatory, for one...maybe Cas figured out that there are other things in Purgatory capable of taking him out as well.

Some have wondered if angels go to Purgatory when they die.  Due to the lack of information Cas had on Purgatory before he colluded with Crowley, I kind of doubt it.  I don’t think angels were supposed to die, so I don’t think God had a plan for them in death.  Angels do not have souls, Heaven and Hell were for human souls, and Purgatory seemed for mutated souls and things that God wanted to lock away to keep the human souls safe.  Also, Cas’s perspective on angels may have shifted a little, but he does not see angels as monsters and he specifically says “every soul here is a monster.  This is where they come to prey upon each other for all eternity.”  Again, considering that essentially the whole population of Purgatory was inside him, I think he would know if angels went to Purgatory.

I found the symmetry of the end to be perfect.  I think that Sera has given Jeremy Carver a veritable font of possibilities and some actual guidance as to where to go with the storyline...which is more than she was given when she took over for Season Six...

all pics but the Rolling Stone cover are from http://homeofthenutty.com/supernatural/screencaps 


here is The Ramblog 1.04 Five Monsters Dean May Meet In Purgatory, Redhead Power and Summer Reading: