#spn goodbye stranger | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

shallowseeker · 8 months

Text

Cas, the angel tablet, and knowing his own heart, part 3

Cas is home, but fear drives him to try to fix everything and protect everyone. His efforts leads to him harming the very thing he wanted to protect.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3 (You are here)

///

== Dean is frosty ==

In 8x22: Clip Show, Dean's hurt, reeling from the rejection that Cas perhaps doesn't even fully grasp he delivered. (Dean is extra, extra prickly, and maybe even a touch embarrassed over the whole thing.)

He thought that, through fighting the Leviathan and fighting through Purgatory, at least their trust had improved. (Cas isn't even thinking about those things, his hands are so full with Heaven trying to harm his family and the humans around him.)

///

When Cas enters the room, he reaches out. Cas says the equivalent of, "Good morning! I like your house." Dean gives him the cold should and transparently business himself with "kitchen things," pretending to be too busy to talk to Cas.

DEAN (brings Sam in a plate): Soup's on. There we go. [DEAN SIPS THE OPEN BEER] I think this is, uh... Oh, it's still good. SAM (clocking Dean's weirdness): A half-drunk beer, jerky, and three peanut-butter cups? DEAN: Yeah, we're – we're running a little low. I'll make a run. CASTIEL (eager): Dean, I can go with you. 8x22: Clip Show,

Cas immediately moves to go with Dean...to restock the kitchen. (Again with Dean n' Cas and kitchens, man. It's where they chat and live together get on the same page about things and store their Giant Hearts.)

CAS: Dean. I'm sorry. DEAN (playing it off, but fishing, blinking rapidly to hide his emotions): For what? 8x22: Clip Show

For what indeed. There's a careful edge, a crafted composure and faux-lightness that is at odds with the situation. (It almost veers into, "For what, because I sure as Hell didn't say anything to you. You misheard me. I misspoke.")

Then, it veers into safer territory. Ish.

CAS: For everything. DEAN: Everything? Like, uh... Like ignoring us? CAS: Yes. DEAN: Or like bolting off with the Angel Tablet, then losing it 'cause you didn't trust me? You didn't trust me. CAS: Yes. 8x22: Clip Show

This is about Dean spilling his guts as much as it is Cas's risky decisions-that-put-him-in-danger. Cas goes off, likes he always does, and he gets brain-whammied by Heaven, and he loses his own heart to Heaven's wars, AND he gets hurt. Dean wants him to be home.

In Purgatory, he asked him to come home with him.

Three seconds later, Sam encourages Dean to "go easy on Cas," even though Sam doesn't have much information at all about the raw emotionality of the situation. Dean's hurt feelings are, of course, about what happened in the crypt, where Dean revealed his Feelings directly to Cas. And Sam has no idea, so it's a little funny.

== New motifs on the horizon ==

Just after their confrontation, Dean and Sam discover the archives and dungeon room for the first time.

THE ARCHIVE ROOM AND DUNGEON

This is where Cas will die, of course, and where Cas will eventually return Dean's feelings. If Cas chooses to love Dean, he's going against God and damning himself to the punishment reminiscent of blended-Nephilim families, as hinted in part 1.

///

BUNKER MOVIE NIGHT

With the angel tablet lost, we get a new symbol, the first instance of "bunker movie night."

This will become a new motif of decoding for Dean and Cas--something they use to try to understand one another, speak the same language, and get on the same page. (Eventually, it will be how they spend quality time together.)

The popcorn is between Dean and Cas, pushed towards Cas, like Dean has left it there as a silent peace offering.

///

== Cas wants back on the team ==

After getting burned by Heaven, Cas wants to be on Team Free Will again, to be equal partners who trust each other. Cas wants to be welcomed back with open arms right away, and Dean is agitated over that, given their last meeting.

But despite everything, Dean is worried. Cas doesn't bring up Dean's raw "I need you," words, and Dean doesn't either.

CAS: Dean, I just want to help. DEAN: We don't need your help. Just stay here and – and get better.

But Dean invokes the word need.

///

== Help! I'm in the doghouse ==

What follows is one of the most hilarious "Help! I'm in the doghouse!" scenes that we'll ever see.

Cas runs out to replenish the kitchen on his own. Sorta.

He goes to a gas-n-sip, to get fuel for the road-journey. He grabs beef jerky, God's specter of fetish-porn, toilet paper, beer, and he cracks eggs...for some reason. He leaves a mess behind.

As he reaches for canned goods (sustenance, a quick meal), he knocks over a rack of....pizza-flavored and BBQ-flavored chips.

Cas is trying to reach out, but he has already accidentally, unknowingly knocked down his chances of pizza. There is no pie.

(Also, poor Chris-the-minimum-wage-worker.)

///

== Enter Metatron ==

Unbeknownst to Castiel, this scribe, fluent in The Angel Tablet and knowledgeable of dangerous spell, has already clocked Cas as a champion of humanity, and he needs Castiel for his Revenge spell.

As they hustle from the convenience store, a warning bell tolls in the background.

METATRON: It's a mess up there. Open warfare...There are factions upon factions, all fighting, betraying each other. It's just a matter of time before they start ripping each other apart. It's all broken. CASTIEL: I know, I'm the one who broke it. There was a time when I thought I could lead our people, but I was mistaken. I spilled so much blood. And I've tried to atone for my sins and I did penance. And I [sighs] betrayed my friends to protect our secrets, but I've just failed. And now – METATRON: Look, I know. But now the angels – heaven – need someone to come to the rescue. They need us. CASTIEL: Us?

Castiel once more falls prey to the thinking, "I and I alone can fix it," (in this case, "we and we alone can fix it.")

That's because he thinks he and he alone broke it.

But the thing is, Castiel is the product of a billions-year broken system of war, not the root cause of its brokenness

Cas's past baggage is preventing his ability to fully reckon and understand his heart, and his heart is calling out to him to fix things and protect his loved ones. And so, he goes after Metatron and the New Cause to assuage his guilt.

SAM: "I can't find Cas. Think he blew town." DEAN (stoic, hurt): "Sounds like him."

///

== Angel tablet trial #1: The Nephilim ==

METATRON: "Levianthans get out of control, you put em in Purgatory. Demons get a little too demonic, toss em into Hell, angels get uppity, slam the Pearly gates. At the very least, it would s – [dog barking in distance, another warning] It would stop the fighting up there from spilling out down here, which will happen. It always does.

That's what Castiel is afraid of, and Metatron knows it. He's read Cas's heart. He knows it's about the safety of the human family. He knows how Heaven works. That they work cloaked in brutality and threats.

This is a primal fear Cas visited in 8x21: The Great Escapist, when the angels rained down on the diner. Cas wants to protect his heart and the humanity that he loves. Heaven's fighting spilled into the family restaurant, where his heart dwells.

Carnage at Biggerson's, 8x21

///

METATRON: No. I can't. I am a pencil pusher, always have been. I'm not strong enough. But you – you are a warrior. I've got the plan. You've got the muscle. We can do this. Heaven needs your help, Castiel. CASTIEL: I am the one that caused these problems. I should be the one to fix them.

So, Metatron casts Castiel as the gullible jock to his crafty nerd.

METATRON: See our waitress? She's the first trial – got to cut her heart out. CASTIEL: What? No, she's... She's just a girl. METATRON: No, she isn't. She's a Nephilim, an abomination. CASTIEL: She's the offspring of an angel and a human? I thought that wasn't allowed. METATRON: It's not. There's only one on Earth, and you are looking at it. CASTIEL: But she didn't choose to be a Nephilim, so she's innocent. METATRON: Yes, she is. I told you it wasn't gonna be easy. But if you want to do this, Castiel, if you really want to do this, you got to ask yourself what's more important – her life or your family?

Metatron doesn't mean the angel family, he means the one that Castiel is terrified of getting caught in the cross-fires of Heaven's wars. He means the human family.

///

They stalk Jane the Nephilim. Cas seems reticent, but he goes through with it, understanding his heart's motivations and wanting to save his family, but undertaking a great evil, born of great fear. He is killing the very things that represent his blended family...and he will be the final ingredient. It will not protect his family but ultimately but them in more danger.

JANE: I know what you are. I could see your halos. METATRON: And we know what you are - Abomination. JANE: Please, I'm not. I try to be nice. I just want to live my life. CAS: We know. I am sorry. JANE: You will be.... You want an abomination? I'll show you an abomination.

And Jane's execution is exceptionally violent. Cas stabs her from behind, through the neck. Then, Cas cuts her heart out. She is, in many ways, the true flower of free will, a union born of the alliance of Heaven and Earth, but he killed it without even recognizing it for what it was.

(Obviously, this parallels season 15's murder of Jack Kline.)

///

== If we shut it all down, you'll finally be safe ==

Which leads us directly into 8x23: Sacrifice. Metatron is taken by Naomi, and Cas runs to Dean for help. He always runs to his human family for help, when it's down to the wire.

(Meanwhile, Metatron is told ominously by Naomi that the archangels had wanted her to "debrief" him, long ago, but he ran, and we feel some sense of why he's so vengeful. Metatron cries out, "You drove me from my home!")

CAS: I've been working with (Metatron) on the Angel trials. DEAN: The what? CAS: We're gonna shut it all down -- Heaven, Hell, all of it.

It's the way to keep you safe. It's the way to fix my home. (I and I alone can fix it.)

DEAN: Metatron, the guy who was full-on crazy, cat-lady-hoarder angel yesterday -- now he wants to save Heaven? CASTIEL: Yes, he wants to. CASTIEL: But I'm the only one in who can. I can't fail, Dean, not on this one. I need your help.

Dean is rightfully suspicious. Motive is always important. He clocks that before Naomi ever shows. It's not that he trusts Naomi, per se, but he's suspicious of Metatron before they even head out.

///

In this image, as has been pointed out by others, we get the two arrows symbology again, similar to the arrow through two hearts that the Biggerson's waitress Kara wore.

Although he is rightfully suspicious of Metatron's rapidly shifting motivations, when Cas asks for his help, he gives it without much pushing.

Meanwhile, Sam is trying to be a grownup hunter, and to make his own amends for his season-8-absenteeism and escapism. Dean says to Cas, "If anyone needs a chaperone, it's Sam."

(Kids' table again.) ///

== Angel tablet trial #2: The Cupid's bow ==

Cas is motivated, amped up in his own conviction and eagerness to fix, not recognizing his own corruption in the process

He's awful to Kevin: "There is no out. Only duty. You are a Prophet of the Lord, always and forever...until the day you cease to exist, and then another Prophet takes your place. Now, are you clear as to the task before you?"

We have the specter of duty and work again, but with career and duty, you are expendable and so, so replaceable.

///

Next, we have the oft-cited, Cupid's bow-shooting Dean. I think it's very likely that Dean is thinking about his feelings again here, the ones that weren't returned. He's trying to come to terms with them.

DEAN: Talk to me. You sure about this?

And of course Cas is sure about this. This will keep Heaven's problems away from them, or so he hopes. "One step ahead of them, to keep them away from you." As always.

Dean gently nudges him about the issue, asks him if "this is it." If this is the end of them, and if Cas is going to die? Cas stares him dead in the eyes and says, "Yeah. I might." Dean tries to shrug it off using his trademark, misery-humor.

They both look so sad!

"So this is it."

///

As the Cupid-bonding gets underway, the screen reflects it. Off-screen, the bartender and Rod start noticing one another, and on screen, we see two men happily walking next together.

"Damn. That's sweet."

Music plays, ♪ "Oh, it's so nice to be with you. I love all the things yay and do. And it's so nice to hear you say, you're gonna please me in every way." ♪

Dean stares, open-mouthed.

Importantly, this is unlike Dean's scene with the TV screen. In Dean's scene, he's getting mortally wounded, shot by the bow-and-arrow, and there is no other party. He's "unrequited" in this thing with Cas. Alone.

Even when Cas walks in, the Dean's TV scene remains solitary, at least from what we (and Dean) can see.

Dean is trying to come to terms with his own "rejection."

///

They follow the cupid. She says, "I've been afraid to go home for some time now... Now it's chaos. It all seems to be breaking down, and you really think you can fix that?"

Cas replies, "With time."

She extends the open palm, giving it freely. This love is caring. From nurturing your family members to comforting the ones you love, caring is done with kind hands.

"Take it then," she says.

(Take it. Please.)

Except Cas's hands are not kind here:

He raises his blade, cutting out the very thing that makes him strong and binds his blended family together. (His kindness, his heart. Despite his uncertainty and gut instinct, he's ignoring it.)

///

== Naomi-who-cried Wolf ==

Dean follows up on his instincts re: Metatron. He checks out the Angel Trials with Kevin.

KEVIN: I think I found the Angel Trials, but I don't see anything about a Nephilim or a Cupid's bow or anything like that.

They walk together.

Cas holds what is very likely Jane's Nephilim heart in a plastic shopping bag. He started 8x22 holding normal kitchen provisions, and this is a terrible replacement.

His original instinct to "fix" things with Dean using silly gifts was his default state, what he should have followed through on. This, however? It's evil.

///

Enter Naomi, unsettled. She comes to Castiel and Dean, because she trusts them to want to do the right thing. But she has made herself untrustworthy. She appeals directly to Dean instead, pragmatically knowing she's got a shot with him. He doesn't really want Cas to leave, after all. (And she has intel on Sam.)

NAOMI: I'm not here to fight you. Not anymore. He told you he was going to fix Heaven, didn't he? Murdering a Nephilim, cutting off a Cupid's bow. It's a lie. All of it. ...He's trying to break it. An act of revenge for driving him away."

In torturing her comrades, and in driving Metatron away from his home to start with, Naomi has created a mistrustful, damaged family that bites her in the ass.

Dean's interest is peaked, but mostly because he already has honed in on Metaton's unreliability.

NAOMI: (He wants) to expel all angels from Heaven, just as God cast out Lucifer. Here. Thousands of us, walking the Earth. Our mission was to protect what God created. I don't know when we forgot that.

And, perhaps most unsettlingly, Naomi reveals that "the ultimate sacrifice was always God's intention. "

And there is so much sacrifice of "children" going on, even here. Jane is sacrificed. Sam is going to be sacrificed.

This has ominous implications for season 15 as well.

CAS: Dean, I'm not wrong. I'm going to fix my home.

///

== Angel tablet trial #3: a Fallen angel's grace ==

When he gets to Heaven, Cas sees Naomi, "dead." He realizes what's up, but Metatron, for all his talk about choices, does not give Castiel a choice here. He shackles him to the chair and forces him to complete the spell.

METATRON: "She told you I lied, didn't she?"

Metatron is now in the role of Naomi, perpetuating his family anger--Revenge. The final trial is taking the grace of the Father of the illegal, blended family.

The Fallen Angel, but the one who Loves Humanity.

METATRON: These were never trials, Castiel. This is a spell. What' I'm taking form you now, your essence, your grace, is the last piece.

///

Meanwhile, the human remnants of the family flounder, temporarily clinging to human weakness and support instead of war and revenge. ("I'd let the sons of bitches who killed mom walk.")

Love is a tremendous force, and the human family forgives. (Heaven family does not.)

In modern times, Churches can represent Forgiveness--very unlike Metatron's bitter, bitter Revenge. For a while, it will be about not holding score, and forgiveness, but as we will see, that's much easier said than done, especially within family units.

///

== Protecting the family hurt the family ==

Metatron used Castiel's horror and fear for the safety of his human family, so horrifically threatened by Heaven, to draw him into a trap.

Now, the opposite of what he wanted to is happening.

His Heaven family is screaming and dying, again, and as they come crashing down, their fight spills towards his vulnerable human family.

///

So, what of the Angel Tablet now?

It's a little on the back-burner, but it still represents Castiel's heart in many ways. Kevin searches the tablet, looking for a way to reverse the spell, just as Castiel keeps trying to make up for what he's done. This is what set him apart from John Winchester--this tenacity to keep trying. (With Heaven, with Winchester family, with Claire Novak.)

In season 9, we'll see Castiel begin to understand his heart even more intimately, as he's broken down to his most basic pieces, "without the bells and whistles."

///

(Text Attributions// Supernatural scripts here via @spnscripthunt. Transcripts are located here via SPNWiki. Visit their Tumblr to donate.)

7 notes · View notes

shallowseeker · 8 months

Text

Cas, the angel tablet, and knowing his own heart, part 2

Cas flees with the tablet and ponders his own heart's motivations. He wants to protect the tablet from everyone, and then...he specifically wants to shield humans from the brutality of Heaven.

Part 1

Part 2 (You are here)

Part 3

== Cas cares. He's always cared. ==

(That's the big secret.)

It's what Heaven has worked so hard to hide from him, and other angels: their emotions.

In 8x21: The Great Escapist Cas is on the run, creating a quantum superimposition using the sameness of small-town diners. The scene opens with him watching a watch as it ticks down.

A waitress brings him coffee, the beverage that will become part of his morning routine with Dean in the bunker.

"I guess I've been acquiring the taste," he says.

She is a clue to reading Castiel's heart (and Dean's).

She's dressed in red, and she wears a light-up pin over her heart, one that points to her left shoulder. It's TWO HEARTS, pierced by an arrow--another blended angel-human family/love motif.

Her name is KARA/CARE. Her nametag is almost literally, "Bigger sons care." To be the bigger man, the better son, the better human, or the better angel, you must care.

Love is the strongest weapon there is.

And Cas is here, at the family restaurant, ordering a smart-heart meal:

CASTIEL: Feels like I've been on the run forever. KARA: Uh, I'm sorry, mister, but you're gonna have to order more than coffee if you wanna keep the table. CASTIEL: Of— of course, um. [glances at a menu] I'll have the smart-heart beer-battered tempura tempters.

///

== We will hurt what you love. Then, you'll stop running. ==

The Angel Tablet has become something of a of a Hitchcock device, a holy MacGuffin of Mass Destruction, but it still has glimmers of relating to matters of loyalty and heart. The angels lament that they can't catch him, because he is choosing where to go next.

Naomi is angry: "You're saying that you can't catch him...Very well. You say he can't be caught? Then we will simply have to make him stop."

Your love is your strength and your weakness. It's an off-key parallel to John Winchester, running from destiny and demons, and foolishly keeping his boys at arms' length to "keep them safe." But Cas's heart is bigger. He stops. He has to stop.

KARA (O.S.): You have to stop. CASTIEL turns to look at her. KARA lies crumpled against one of the booths, her eyes having been burned out. KARA: They said you have to stop. CASTIEL: No. KARA: They said you have to stop. CASTIEL moves over to her. CASTIEL: No. KARA: Just stop... you have to stop... CASTIEL: No. KARA: You have to stop. [CASTIEL reaches out to heal her] They said you have to stop. ION and the other ANGEL appear behind CASTIEL. ION presses his angel blade to CASTIEL's throat. KARA: You have to stop.

"Kara: Stop." -> Care: stop. -> STOP CARING.

And here we have another hidden part of Castiel's heart revealed. He's not just running to protect the tablet from his human family; he's running to protect his human family from his angel family.

Cas finally comes to a stop in the family diner, but it's littered with bodies and overturned chairs. Standing against Heaven is a bloody, no-win situation. Running is impossible.

Heaven will kill his loved ones.

Death is inevitable.

They know he cares too much for his human family. Ion foreshadows Castiel's punishment--an angel blade to his throat--where his grace will be ripped out.

///

== Now that Cas's heart is unboxed, Cas is processing his past and integrating the ugliest truths about himself ==

Metaphorically, Cas is processing how much he cares, and in turn, Naomi reveals more of his past crimes (to his horror). Cas is beginning to see himself, to know himself more completely. And he's beginning to create a more complete picture of Heaven's true power structure, too.

CASTIEL: We were supposed to be their shepherds, not their murderers. NAOMI: Not always, angel. There was that day, back in Egypt, not so long ago, where we slew every first-born infant whose door wasn't splashed with lamb's blood. And that was just PR. CASTIEL: Well, I wasn't there. NAOMI: Oh, you were there. You just don't remember it. CASTIEL: How— how many times have you torn into my head and washed it clean? NAOMI: Frankly? Too damn many. [NAOMI snaps her fingers to make one of the chairs slide over to her. She sits down.] NAOMI: You're the famous spanner in the works. Honestly, I think you came off the line with a crack in your chassis. You have never done what you were told. Not completely. You don't even die right, do you? Where is the angel tablet, Castiel?

"Bite me," Cas says, recalling Balthazar, another Emotional Angel (TM) who stood up for what he thought was right, even against Castiel. Balthazar, who didn't want to power up Purgatory on the chance that it would "blow half of earth away, too."

Balthazar did not want to destroy the village just to save it.

///

Next, Cas's guts get spilled. That is, Crowley barges in and shoots Castiel in the abdomen. "Takes a painful long time to bleed out from the gut."

That it does, Crowley.

(It's also callback to Jimmy Novak, when he was shot by demons, in season 4's 4x20: The Rapture. Cas is thinking about all of his crimes. Jimmy, too, stood up for his family. Sacrificed himself for his family. Crowley shoots Cas.)

Cas says, "The tablets weren't meant for the angels, and they weren't meant for you."

Now, I always thought Crowley was pulling this thing out of Cas's stomach, from that "gooey middle" demons are always crowing about.

But on revisiting, and looking at the location of his collar and button, that's up around the bottom of Cas's ribcage, and Crowley is reaching UP into it. He's starting near Cas's appetite for love, the stomach, but he's literally pulling it...from Cas's chest.

It's where his heart is.

///

== Cas and Ion versus Nihilism ==

And so, the angel tablet is taken. But Cas is beginning to not rely on it as much, because he's processing on his own now. Torn open, guts spilled.

Cas is developing renewed conviction. We get one of our first glimpses of Supernatural Vs. Nihilism:

ION: Do you even know what the mission was? They've been in all our heads. CASTIEL: We aren't machines for them to program and reprogram. That wasn't what this was meant to be. ION: Nothing matters. CASTIEL: You are so wrong, brother. It all matters. CASTIEL digs out the angel bullet from the wound on his stomach.

ION/"EYE ON" laments; he falls to Nihilism. Cas digs out the bullet and shoves it through Ion's eye, forcibly breaking away from the gaze of the narrative once more, to become an invisible, unpredictable Wild Card.

It all matters. Like:

CAS: It doesn't matter. DEAN: Of course it matters. 7x17: The Born-Again Identity

///

== Enter Metatron, the one who knows stuff from his head, but not from the heart (yet) ==

Just as Cas is developing a renewed idealism...Metatron appears.

He is amongst stacks and stacks of books. Plotting, hurt, angry, vindictive.

Image by DrogMiestar

Metatron has read so many books that he can intellectually recognize what he's seeing, or at least the patterns of it, even if he can't truly feel it at this point.

This bitter, angry nerd will see and understand the heart of the tablet, just as he sees Castiel's heart. He will use that knowledge of its love and power to punish.

Eventually, after he gets his Revenge, he wants to cast Cas as his Lucifer, with himself as God. In terms of storytelling, Metatron is aping what he's seen--what God put down as Epic and Big and Edgy and Wild.

But it's a vindictive, empty style of storytelling. It's heartless.

SAM: Pull the freaking trigger, you cowardly piece of garbage. All the time you've been hiding here, how much suffering have you read over? Humanity's suffering! And how much of it has been at the hands of your kind?!

Metatron saves Kevin and affects a faux wiseman shtick:

METATRON: "But really... really, it was your storytelling. That is the true flower of free will...It's your choice. And that's what this has all been about, the choices your kind make."

It will take three whole seasons (and Metatron losing everything, from his grace to his faith in the novel, to very nearly his life at the hands of Castiel), but Metatron will not always be hyperfocused on choices.

Eventually, in season 11, Metatron will not view the flower of free will as merely "story choices." Eventually, that flower will be about "humanity not giving up." It will be about resilience in the face of so many mistakes.

///

== Cas reappears ==

EXT. ROAD - NIGHT - As the Impala swerves, its headlights illuminate the figure, revealing it to be a bloodied CASTIEL. The car skids to a halt and SAM and DEAN jump out. DEAN: Cas? CASTIEL (irritably): A little help, here?

Cas is back on the road, injured. His newfound self-revelation, meditation, and knowledge have led him back to Team Free Will, the alliance with his human family.

(The road is the place where people try to find their way together. Wayfinding with your family.)

Cas no longer has the tablet, but he knows a little bit more about his own heart, and about Heaven's heartless structure, too.

///

(Text Attributions// Supernatural scripts here via @spnscripthunt. Transcripts are located here via SPNWiki. Visit their Tumblr to donate.)

6 notes · View notes