family
let the torturing ensue
my soul is useless without you
In 7x02 we see Sam dig into a fresh cut on his left hand in order to ground himself in the face of his Hell hallucinations. Since then (and long after the wound has healed) Sam’s used the same technique in other moments when he feels uncertain about reality. (Edit: updated with S12!)
Did you ever hear of a woman in white? Or sometimes weeping woman? Um, they’re spirits. They’ve been sighted for hundreds of years, dozens of places, in Hawaii, Mexico, lately in Arizona, Indiana. All these are different women. But all share the same story. See, when they were alive, their husbands were unfaithful to them. And these women, basically suffering from temporary insanity, murdered their children. Then once they realized what they had done, they took their own lives. So now their spirits are cursed, walking back roads, waterways. And if they find an unfaithful man, they kill him. And that man is never seen again.
my favorite songs from all 11 seasons - [listen]
Back in Black by AC/DC | Highway To Hell by AC/DC | Hot Blooded by Foreigner | Fly By Night by Rush | Rock Of Ages by Def Leppard | Laugh I Nearly Died by The Rolling Stones | Hey Man Nice Shot by Filter | Peace Of Mind by Boston | No One Like You by Scorpions | Bad Company by Bad Company | (Don’t Fear) The Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult | She Brings Me Love by Bad Company | Burnin’ For You by Blue Oyster Cult | Road To Nowhere by Ozzy Ozbourne | Fight The Good by Fight Triumph | Turn To Stone by Joe Walsh | Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival | Stranglehold by Ted Nugent | Time Has Come Today by The Chambers Brothers | Wheel In The Sky by Journey | Can’t Fight This Feeling by Reo Speedwagon | Fell On Black Days by Soundgarden | Cold As Ice by Foreigner | Renegade by Styx | Down on Love by Jamie Dunlap | Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door by Bob Dylan | The Crystal Ship by Doors | Back On The Road Again by Reo Speedwagon | House of the Rising Sun by The Animals | Silent Lucidity by Queensrÿche | Rooster by Alice In Chains | Hell’s Bells by AC/DC | Every Rose Has Its Thorn by Poison | Heat Of The Moment by Asia | Wanted Dead Or Alive by Bon Jovi | You Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC | Lonely Is The Night by Billy Squier | Eye Of The Tiger by Survivor | Ready For Love by Bad Company | Long, Long Way From Home by Foreigner | A Well Respected Man by The Kinks | Thunderstrike by AC/DC | Spirit In The Sky by Norman Greenbaum | Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd | Rock And Roll Never Forgets by Bob Seger | Cherry Pie by Warrant | Too Hot To Stop by MarcFerrari and Steve Plunkett | O Death by Jen Titus | Beautiful Loser by Bob Seger | Smoke On The Water by Deep Purple | The Gambler by Kenny Rogers | Back In The Saddle by Aerosmith | One Way Or Another by Blondie | Hero by Federale | Miracles by Jefferson Starship | Loudest Alarm by Scars On 45 | Play With Fire by The Rolling Stones | Slow Ride by Foghat | Black Water by The Doobie Brothers | Two Days in February by The Goo Goo Dolls | 4AM Blues by Barrett Johnson| I’m All Out Of Love by Air Supply | Ridin` The Storm Out by Reo Speedwagon | Dear Mr. Fantasy by Traffic | Start Me Laughing by Dead Confederate | Wake Up Little Susie by The Everly Brothers | Turn Into Earth by The Yardbirds | Walking On Sunshine by Katrina & The Waves | Vincent by Don McLean | Born To Be Wild by Steppenwolf | Locomotive Breath by Jethro Tull | Man In The Wilderness by Styx | What’s The Matter by Milo Greene | We Gotta Get Out of this Place by Eric Burton & the Animals | That Old Familiar Pain by Trevor Gordon Hall | Katmandu byBob Seger | I Touch Myself by The Divinyls | Goodbye Stranger by Supertramp | I’ll Surely Die by The Rubens | Nice To Be With You by Gallery | Who Do You Love by George Thorogood And The Destroyers | For Those About To Rock by AC/DC | Stone In Love by Journey | The Famous Final Scene by Bob Seger | You’re No Good by Linda Ronstadt | The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine by Frankie Valli | If You Wanna Get to Heaven by The Ozark Mountain Daredevils | Little Black Submarines by The Black Keys | Can’t Find My Way Home by Blind Faith | Heartbreaker by Pat Benatar | Imaginary Lover by Atlanta Rhythm Section | Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot | Travelin’ Man by Bob Seger | The Weight by The Band | Long Black Road by Electric Light Orchestra | Ashes The Rain And I by The James Gang | Shake It Off by Taylor Swift | Head Full of Doubt, Road Full of Promise by The Avett Brothers | Behind Blue Eyes by The Who | Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain by Willie Nelson | Wherever You Wanna Go by Patty Griffin | Run Through The Jungle by Creedence Clearwater Revival | The Guitar Man by Bread | Night Moves by Bob Seger | Bad Girls by M.I.A. | Hell To Pay by Five Finger Death Punch | Changing Tracks by Wishbone Ash | Good Vibrations by Brian Wilson | Fare Thee Well by Rob Benedict | Carry On Wayward Son by Kansas |
…just as it began, with a blank slate. Which, after a three-season arc stretched into four, is oh so refreshing.
The King is dead. Long live the King.
And Dabb Era has kicked off with a simple yet crucial shift in focus: from two brothers and the sometimes toxic dynamic between them, to two sons and their relationship with their long-dead parents.
We’ve seen it over and over and over again through the past four seasons, amped up even more in season 11. Following the same path, the same bad decisions, the same sacrifice play and the same drive for revenge, all it leads to is more of the same. The Winchester merry-go-round, with no way to get off the ride. And still, the Winchesters have continued on their not-so-merry way, because that’s the only path that they’ve been taught. Even in tonight’s episode, they still kept on that same path. Last week Sam offered to take on the Mark of Cain to trap Amara, and this week Dean offered up his life to kill Amara.
But Dean. He’s spent the last four years in the middle of a transformation. A trial by fire to show him other ways of living than the one he’s always been taught. He hit rock bottom and then dug himself down even further, until finally there really was nowhere else to go but up. And while he was down there, he finally saw the truth of the endless track he and Sam have been running along ever since Mary died on that ceiling, since Lucifer was cast out of Heaven, since God created the universe and Amara looked on it in jealousy. Every iteration of the same damn story, the same ride spinning round and round. Grief leads to anger, anger leads to more grief, and all that revenge and sacrifice just ends with Yoda shaking his head at the mangling of his quote.
So Dean got off the ride.
There was no sacrifice play. No big explosion. No slapping on a bandaid for future generations to worry about. Just Dean and Amara, talking in a garden. Just a reminder that family is about more than just the grand gestures, the fights and the sacrifices. Family is about hating each other and loving each other all at once, light and dark together. The cycle ends when those two things come together, light and dark, Chuck and Amara.
Which leaves the show and us with a new stage of family conflict. Because family isn’t just siblings. It’s also parents, and the legacies they leave their children, all the things that they taught them knowingly or unknowingly. With Chuck reappearing on the show, those issues were brought back as well, the memory of John’s absence and the effect it had on the boys, the legacy of hunting and revenge that ruined so much of their lives. And in 11x23, not only were the Men of Letters, the organization closely linked to legacy and Winchester fathers, given the thread of plot to set up next season; they were also matched by the reappearance of Mary Winchester. Sam taken away by his father’s legacy, and Dean confronted with his mother’s.
The merry-go-round has stopped, and now it’s time to face the ones who set it spinning in the first place.
