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shallowseeker · 8 months

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Cas, the Angel Tablet, and learning to know and trust his own heart, part 1

His weakness is revealed! The angel tablet as a symbol of Cas's understanding of his own heart.

Part 1 (You are here)

Part 2

Part 3

== What is the angel tablet? ==

Image by Bkshadows

The angel tablet is one of Heaven's most powerful weapons, and sometimes its physicality serves as just that: a weapon.

Other times, it's a curious motif of the secrets of angels, and their angelic romantic love. As one of three known Words of God, it:

"pertains to the nature of Angels as well as granting unimaginable power to Angels who have a connection with it."

///

== Angels + Love + Disconnection ==

Throughout the series, angels regularly showcase volatile (and sometimes petty) emotions. They grieve each other; they Fall. They shriek. They tremble. We see this in Anna, Uriel, Hester, Lucifer, Anael and many others.

But due to years of brutal beatdown and brainwashing, they're disconnected from their own hearts. They cannot recognize their own feelings. Even when they are displaying Big Emotions or even longing, they repeat the company line:

Image by MisterRandom2

DEAN: You're some heartless sons of bitches, you know that? CASTIEL: As a matter of fact, we are. And? 4x10: Heaven and Hell

ANNA: Perfect... Like a marble statue. Cold... no choice... only obedience. 4x10: Heaven and Hell

///

== The illegal union with humanity ==

Image by Mikael

In SPN, angels often connect to their own hearts through their (illegal) living among their human-blended families. In 12x10: Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets, we see that angel-human progeny are outlawed by the oldest laws in Heaven.

///

In season 8, this illegality surrounds Dean and Cas, and this idea of human-angel unity is littered with motifs such as Cupid bows, and Nephilim hearts. It hammers home the image of forbidden romantic love between angels and humans.

Ther clinging to one another is what allowed Dean and Cas to break Chuck's story: "You're not supposed to be here." This union is what allowed them to see and kill the Leviathan, a feat that is supposed to be the domain of God only.

Free will--rebellion--is a team effort. Sam and Dean could not have done it without Cas, and he could not have done it without them. They learned courage from each other, and they borrowed courage from each other, too.

These elements of rebellion swirl in season 8 and have tragic counterparts in season 15.

Jane the Nephilim (Jack), a love-mark "Cupid's bow" on Cupid's palm (Dean & handprint, symbolic of human love & families), and Castiel's Fallen Angel grace (Cas & The Empty). All elements of angelic-human forbidden love are sacrificed in season 8...as they are in season 15.

A stereotypical arrangement of human-angel motifs goes something like this: The hybrids are killed in front of their parents, to punish them, by witnessing the death of their beloved ones. The fallen angels are then judged by God and cast into dark places. The human lovers linger, as demons to be executed and silenced. It's eerily reminiscent of season 15.

Some believe the fallen angels who sired the Nephilim were cast into Tartarus (2 Peter 2:4, Jude 1:6) (Greek Enoch 20:2), a place of "total darkness."

Floods are the preferred method of torture for the blended, "Nephilim" families: Jack was born on Washaway beach, his birth cabin littered with paintings of the violent sea, and his mother Kelly seemed to recede into the ocean.

As the series progresses, Cas and Dean move from being killed via explosions, Hell hounds, purifying fires, and purifying Purgatory elements...to being overtaken by turbulent waters and summarily executed, as traitors are, with stabs to the back.

Castiel was overtaken by a cosmic sea of black, and Dean was drowned relentlessly by Michael. There is certainly a Flood motif for them in a way there is not for Sam.

///

God wants them to keep to their domains; Heaven and Earth are not to merge.

He tells the angels to keep their Dominion over the humans, as shepherds tend to their sheep. He tells the humans, "submit and obey," and then, if you do, maybe someday, I'll elevate you above the angels. You can be equal to me, if only you grovel and take a knee, of course.

(I promise, I promise.)

///

== Crime and punishment ==

It's interesting then, that the "Angel Tablet"/Metatron spell was punitive towards angels, causing them to Fall and be cast out. As above, it included sacrificing a Nephilim, stealing a Cupid's love bow (the symbolic taking of a human lover), and sacrificing the grace of a fallen angel.

If Castiel's heart is a blended family, Metatron, like God, cruelly works behind the scenes to clock and punish it. This resulting spell that Metatron devised burns up the wings of the Primary Angels in Heaven, killing many in the process.

Although Metatron aimed his Revenge at the Primary Angels, there's a good chance that this punishment originally existed to be aimed at the human-angel blended families. It seems to predate Lucifer's casting out. Indeed, Apocryphal texts like Enoch 10 shows a sadistic delight in the punitive action of having the Sinful parents watch the deaths of their children:

and they have seen the destruction of their beloved ones, bind them fast for seventy generations in the valleys of the earth, till the day of their judgment and of their consummation, till the judgment that is forever and ever is consummated. In those days they shall be led off to the abyss

(One thing's for sure, it's certainly Metatron's Revenge of the Nerd.)

If indeed the spell can be assembled from the tablet (it's unclear if if was even in there), that Lucifer hid it inside a crypt suggests he couldn't read it, was protecting someone, or may have been on the side of the Nephilim and their Fathers. All are fascinating possibilities.

///

== Is the tablet Castiel's heart? ==

In part. It's other things, too.

Like all motifs in SPN, it morphs in and out of being a stand-in for many different things. In episode 8x17 Goodbye Stranger, it stands in for Castiel's career loyalty...and his heart. At flashpoints, it's Dean's heart, too, because their hearts say the same thing.

Samandriel says of Castiel, "Too much heat was always his problem," so I think much of Castiel's dangerous / insurrectionist power lies in his angelic courage to keep trying to Love, even when Heaven tries to wash it clean.

This disrupts Chuck's Story.

Sure, it makes Cas weaker in some ways, and he'll struggle with that, but it makes him so much stronger, too. More tenacious, more resilient.

I like to think that Chuck slowly starts to become more in competition with Cas, especially as Dean falls more and more in love with him.

"Too stubborn!" Chuck shrieks in 15x17 Unity.

///

== Location, location, location ==

Where do we find Castiel's heart in 8x17 Goodbye Stranger? Meg reveals its location, (just as she knows where Castiel's affections truly lie).

Image from TheWinchesterFamilyBusiness.com

A CRYPT, A BASEMENT, A WAREHOUSE, AN ORCHARD, A FLOOD

It's in a crypt (typically a stone chamber beneath the floor of a church or mausoleum). It's located beneath an orchard that was washed away by a hundred-year flood, a call forward to the looming unity of Dean and Cas. Again, we see echoes of Nephilim themes, like the cleansing Flood. Like the orchard, Cas's heart went missing.

WENDY RICE: Well, she-- she didn't, but she did mention an -- an old orchard that had gone missing... This -- this town was wiped from the earth by one of the river's 100-year floods. ... I've been working to re-create a map for years as part of my research, and this -- this is the old Jakubiak orchard there. [she points to a section of the map.] I found out yesterday it's where Downey meets Bond Street. 8x17: Goodbye Stranger

The orchard was washed clean, just as Castiel is brainwashed over and over again, losing sight of his own heart. The old site is now covered by a warehouse. There's an intersection of roads: Downey and Bond, like a profound bond. Cas doesn't so much Learn Humanity as he Revives his Own Dean Heart, one that he had all along.

Remember, it is a warehouse where 8x17 cold-opens, where Naomi forces Cas to act out killing Dean. (And ultimately, Dean will die in a warehouse via Metatron's Heavenly war, in season 9.)

INT. WAREHOUSE - NIGHT DEAN comes around the corner in a darkened warehouse, gun drawn. He brings his gun up but it's struck down. He is struck down. CASTIEL appears over him. DEAN: No, Cas. No! [DEAN raises his hand towards CASTIEL, but CASTIEL breaks his wrist, we hear the bone snap. DEAN groans in pain.] ... NAOMI: No hesitation. Quick. Brutal. [NAOMI and CASTIEL stare down at DEAN.] Everything's back in order. [NAOMI smiles at CASTIEL.] Finally. [We see a close-up of CASTIEL, his face expressionless.] You're ready. 8x17: Goodbye Stranger

This warehouse is like Dean himself, and how his love currently manifests, overflowing with a surplus of affection...for Cas. Later, they come to a warehouse to retrieve the tablet.

EXT. ABANDONED WAREHOUSE, ALLEY - NIGHT MEG: So, this is it. Basement? DEAN: All right, Cas and I will head in and get our Indiana Jones on. Sam, you stay outside with Meg. 8x17: Goodbye Stranger

Once inside, they reach a wall, and Castiel cracks it, letting Dean inside where his heart resides.

CASTIEL: I don't know. Wait. [They're walking through a darkened corridor when CASTIEL stops, feels the cement wall.] There's a draft. There's something behind there. Stand back. [Hand against the wall, energy flows through his hand, the wall cracks.] 8x17: Goodbye Stranger

8x17: GOODBYE STRANGER

So, we have old orchard motif (Cas's love without Heaven's interference; Dean is himself a new "valley")

Flood (Divine punishment)

A broken wrist (Punishment, for continuing to reach for each other despite all the barriers keeping them apart)

Warehouse (Dean loves Cas; it's where the love is stored, like the kitchen; Heaven wants to keep it impersonal and distant)

then a journey DOWN a basement

through a wall, and into a crypt, where Cas's stone-cold, dead heart awaits.

There's also a nod to Indiana Jones, which brings to mind 4x22: Lucifer Rising, a cherished callback to one of the first moments that Cas captivated Dean, and one of the first times they messed up Chuck's story. "We're making it up as we go."

Here in the crypt is where Dean will share his secret truth and shatter the stone barricade around Cas's heart, setting it free.

(It flies away.)

15x18: DESPAIR

This is a mate scene to 15x18: Despair, which features a library motif (Cas breaks the narrative, just as his grace was hidden in a book and blew out the pages of the story)

Death (Mortalpunishment)

A heart attack (punishment for Dean's love)

Bunker (Cas protects Dean, his love is stored in his tenacious, sometimes misguided protection)

then a journey DOWN to the archive room

where Cas erects a "barricade" to protect Dean, with warding

but they are pushed back into a dungeon, where Dean's heart is entrapped (Devil's trap)

The shackles are a nod to Dean's time in Hell, one of the first moments that Dean met Cas.

Here in the dungeon, Cas will share his secret truth and throw Dean out of the entrapment. Cas sets it free.

Dean wears his heart on his sleeve.

(It's bleeding.)

///

== Castiel's unknowable heart ==

When they find the tablet, Naomi tells Cas to leave and to tell the Winchester that the crypt is Empty, just like Heaven tells its angels that they're heartless.

Naomi doesn't want Dean to touch it. Cas rationalizes that Dean can and should open it, and it's a logical move, too, since it's warded against angels. Angels, after all, are cursed by God not to connect to their own hearts.

In the crypt, everything is covered with dust, spider webs. Close-up of CASTIEL's face. CASTIEL (breathes): I found it. ... CASTIEL: Dean... [POV switches back to the crypt. CASTIEL points towards an item on a shelf against the wall.] That's it. [DEAN shines his flashlight on a carved, wooden chest.] DEAN: How do you know? CASTIEL: It's the only thing in here warded against angels. [DEAN picks up the heavy object and places it on the table in front of CASTIEL. DEAN picks up a small dagger, and pries open the lid. He reaches in and lifts out a rather large block of stone.] DEAN: Winner, winner, chicken dinner. CASTIEL: Good. Hand it to me, and I'll take it to heaven. DEAN: No, we will take it to Kevin so he can translate. [DEAN holds the block of stone using both hands.] 8x17: Goodbye Stranger

Cas wants to hand his stone-cold heart to Heaven to use as a weapon. Heaven doesn't want angel hearts to belong to angels. They must belong to heaven. But Dean wants to understand it, like he wants to understand and translate Cas.

///

== Castiel will hurt Dean ==

Image by Winchester-GIFs

Cas angels up. Thunder and lightning. A storm.

CASTIEL: I won't hurt Dean. NAOMI: Yes. You will. You are. 8x17: Goodbye Stranger

It's a tragic callback to Castiel's season 7 PTSD!ridden lamentation, that he (or Heaven) is going to hurt Dean and he doesn't want to:

CASTIEL: I can't help. You understand? I can't. I destroyed... everything, and I will destroy everything again. Can we please just leave it at that? 7x23: Survival of the Fittest

Castiel's heart is brutal, angelic, and pragmatic. Angels are destroyers. Angels hurt humans, and humans hurt angels. Castiel's heart will hurt Dean. If they give their hearts to each other, if they ally with one another, it's as he said in 4x22: "We'll all be hunted down and killed."

And he's not human. In season 6, Cas started his drawn-out repetition of this: "I'm not human." And he keeps right on emphasizing this, despairing, in season 8, "I don't think it will work for me. I'm not human."

I'm not like you. I'll hurt you. (I'll destroy everything.)

If Dean thinks he's poison, a blunt instrument, then Cas is war personified, a sharpened blade. He'll break what he touches, and even when he breaks, he'll be sharp like glass. Certainly not something you can hold onto.

("War is what Michael does." It's what angels do.)

///

== Be honest with me (I love you) ==

Dean pleads with a suddenly dangerous-looking Cas:

INT. BASEMENT, CRYPT - NIGHT DEAN: Just tell me how you got out of Purgatory. Be honest with me -- for the first time since you've been back -- [DEAN nods towards the stone he's still holding] and this is yours. [CASTIEL's blade drops into his hand.]" 8x17: Goodbye Stranger

Be honest with me and this is yours.

Now the tablet is symbolic of Dean's love, too, taunting the possibility that, "Be honest with me, and (my heart) is yours."

///

This is the crux of what Dean has been dealing with since season 6. He finally understands his own oversized reactions and defensive barbs. Season 7 brought a crash of unrelenting grief, followed by a slow understanding.

The Turducken revealed that a large part of Dean's issues in that season were about "Cas and the black goo." It hit Dean so hard. It caused Dean to "go through the motions," to "not be the same Dean," to be like "one of the dead hunters walking." Feeling for Cas is different for Dean, and Dean's trying to figure out why:

DEAN: Honestly, I-I-I don't know if he is dead. I just know that this... whole thing couldn't be messier. You know, I used to be able to just shake this stuff off. You know, whatever it was. It might take me some time, but... I always could. What Cas did... I just can't – I don't know why. EMMANUEL/CASTIEL: Well, it doesn't matter why. DEAN: Of course it matters. 7x17: The Born-Again Identity

Of course it matters. it's Dean's feelings! It's Dean trying to sort out why everything with Cas feels so Big. Why Cas matters so much. Why Dean kept the coat. Why he missed him so much. Dean was puzzling it over and trying to figure it out all this time.

///

== The coat + Take it. Please. ==

Dean's deeper feelings start to become apparent in the coat scene. Dean tenderly folds the coat, cradles it to his chest, and drags it from car to car. He mouths along the words to "All Out of Love (I'm so lost without you)."

Then, he meets Cas again, and he returns it, a symbol of their longing and their mutual caring (they care about the same things):

DEAN: Wait. DEAN opens the trunk of the car and takes out CASTIEL’s trenchcoat. Somber, he holds it out to CASTIEL. 7x17: The Born-Again Identity

///

The meaning is even more potent in the scripted version of the scene:

He goes to the car trunk. Digs... Comes up with Cas's folded, stained COAT. DEAN: Dumb to keep. I know. I saw you-- dissolve or whatever. But, just in case. 'Cause I never stopped wanting to fix it either. So we got something in common. (re: the coat) Just-- take it. Please. 7x17: The Born-Again Identity

This "just take it, please," line is just so desperate. It sounds dangerously close to "giving away your heart." Please.

Take it. Please. Be honest with me and this is yours.

It's freely given. It's not Destiny or Fate. It's the Rebellion of Free Will.

///

== Dean defends himself against the onslaught ==

Though Castiel's "heart" is encased in stone, it is this stone that is protecting Dean from Cas-as-Heaven's war hammer. (This tablet was not present to protect Naomi's Dean-doppelgangers.)

Dean is protecting himself from the blows, and yet...he keeps trying to reach for Cas.

He puts a (reciprocal) hand on Cas's shoulder, a callback to Castiel's handprint/influence/connection to Dean. It is simply a bond. The love isn't cosmic Fate. It's simply two people, reaching for each other. Their hands often reach for the left shoulder, for the direct line to the other's heart.

CASTIEL attacks, DEAN blocks the blow with the stone.] Cas! [Flashes of light, thunder rumbles.] ... [CASTIEL strikes again, DEAN again uses the stone to block the blow. Thunder rumbles.] ... DEAN: Cas! [DEAN puts his hand on CASTIEL's shoulder. CASTIEL backhands DEAN who is thrown into a wall and falls to the floor.] 8x17: Goodbye Stranger

The storm is the sound of Castiel's heart, rebelling. Thunderous. It's not dead. It's not dead. (It's not as Dean thought in 4x22: "You soulless son of a bitch. You're already dead. We're done." Cas's heart is alive.)

CASTIEL is attacking DEAN. DEAN throws a punch, CASTIEL grabs his forearm and breaks it. We hear the bone snap, DEAN drops the stone, it shatters, revealing the tablet that was encased within. Lightning flashes. 8x17: Goodbye Stranger

Cas hurts Dean, and as Dean is forced to let go, the stone casing protecting the Angel Tablet (Castiel's heart) shatters.

CASTIEL is beating DEAN. DEAN's face is bruised and bloodied. DEAN: You want it? [CASTIEL looks dispassionately at the now exposed tablet.] Take it! But you're gonna have to kill me first. Come on, you coward. Do it. Do it! [CASTIEL continues to beat DEAN.] 8x17: Goodbye Stranger

Dean is talking to Heaven here, to Naomi. He's saying to her, you have to kill ME in order to kill this connection between me and Cas as we are right now. After all, Dean wouldn't leave him in Purgatory. He's goading Heaven that he won't let go. Dean knows his own heart now.

He keeps reaching for Cas, even though Cas let go of his hand and has in fact broke the wrist of the very hand that had clung to him so tightly in Purgatory.

DEAN: Ohh! [DEAN, seriously beaten and bloody, now has one eye swollen shut.] Cas. Cas. [Weakly, reaching towards CASTIEL.] I know you're in there. [CASTIEL raises his angel blade, ready to strike.] I know you can hear me. Cas... [DEAN's voice breaks, pleading.] It's me. [CASTIEL stands there, blade at the ready, light glints off the blade.] We're family. We need you. I need you. 8x17: Goodbye Stranger

///

The script emphasizes Dean, barely hanging on:

From above: CRYPT - NIGHT. Dean is barely hanging on now. Beaten. Swollen. Bloody. DEAN: I know you're in there. I know you are. I forgive, you Cas... (then) ....I love you. Cas looks at Dean. As if hearing him for the first time. 8x17: Goodbye Stranger

This situation is no longer as simple as pleading for honesty and equal partnership:

Be honest with me, and this is yours.

It has become more desperate, unconditional, raw:

I forgive you. I love you regardless. (I need you anyway. Even if you're broken. We're family. We'll be broken together. "Do I look like good luck to you?" I'm broken, too.)

///

== The connection to Heaven breaks! ==

Cas rears back, stunned. In the script, it's written, "as if hearing him for the first time." He drops the blade. After all he's been through, the arrogance of being a petty God, the disparaging of human family as ants and pets, the partial penance of Purgatory, and now the unholy analgesic of Heaven's mission, Cas's heart is finally open.

Cas feels...something. It's loud. Thunder and lightning. It's alive.

He lets go of Dean, reaches down to grasp the tablet, and it flashes a bright light that blinds Naomi and hides him from her gaze. I think of how Cas's out-of-bounds nature hides him from demigods, like Noah the gorgon (season 14), and how Chuck cannot seem to predict him.

Castiel's love is a Wild Card.

CASTIEL is holding the angel tablet, standing over DEAN. DEAN: Cas? [Breathing heavily, he's horribly beaten. ] Cas? [CASTIEL reaches his hand towards DEAN. He wails, in a panic, thinking Cas is about to smite him:] No. Cas. Cas! [CASTIEL places his hand on the side of DEAN's head, DEAN gasps, and is suddenly healed.] CAS: I'm so sorry, Dean. 8x17: Goodbye Stranger

///

== What broke the connection? (I love you) ==

DEAN (wonderingly): Well, w-what broke the connection? CASTIEL: I don't know. DEAN looks HORRIFIED:

Image by @xofemeraldstars

Dean's not stupid.

He knows what he just said to Cas, and he knows what he himself meant. Dean's figured himself out. In asking, "What broke the connection," he's fishing. It's as good as asking, "What about your feelings." He's been wanting to know Castiel's unknowable heart, and Cas hits him with this light rejection. Is Cas lying to him again, or does he really not- ? Dean thinks he must've misunderstood. Badly.

But the thing is, Cas isn't playing. The tablet, like his heart, is free, but like the tablet, but Castiel can't fully "read" it yet. He's got too much heart, and plenty of emotions, but after billions of years of military servitude, he can't recognize his own feelings or parse them.

(Of course, Dean doesn't know that.)

CAS: I just know that I have to protect this tablet now. DEAN: From Naomi? CASTIEL: Yes. And from you. DEAN: From me? What are you talking about? [CASTIEL and the tablet are suddenly gone, the sound rumbles through the crypt.] Cas? Cas! Damn it. 8x17: Goodbye Stranger

///

== Cas flees ==

Fresh off yet another bout of Heavenly brainwashing and torture, Cas needs to flee and figure out how to handle his own heart.

It's no wonder he's spun out. The last few years:

In season 4, he was murdered by Raphael after billions of years of military servitude.

This Raphael-wound led to bitterness and shame, and Cas shouldered a war all by himself in season 6.

(He didn't even trust his comrades to know his Purgatory-eating plans, and he didn't trust them enough to share the burden of that power, either).

In season 7, he became a megalomaniac and family annihilator.

In season 8, he turned to self-punishment/penance/suicide.

He pledged to suffer as penance, and he did not reach for Dean any sort of happiness.

He did not allow himself to go home.

But even so, Heaven still wouldn't let him rest, and they retrieved him for more work.

After all that, he's been hit with this barrage of emotion, and he doesn't understand it or how he feels about it. So, he protects. Withdraws. Flees.

He needs more time to sort himself out.

///

==Dean is hurt in that prickly, embarrassed sort of way==

Dean is mega-hurt.

Because on his part, it was, in essence, a love confession. Naomi's later dialogue is written with this "love confession" in mind:

NAOMI: "I only wish he felt the same way."

And in 8x18 Freaks and Geeks, when Sam asks if Dean is okay, it's Dean who brings up his feelings. "Cas dinged you up pretty good. Are you okay?" Dean bristles -> "What, like my feelings?"

So, not only does Cas not love him, but he doesn't even trust him. Dean clung to him so hard, and Cas let him go again. (The timing is so tragically wrong, as usual.)

SAM: So... what happened? I mean, Cas touched the tablet, and it reset him to his factory settings or something? DEAN: I don't know. And I don't care. All I know is that he is off the reservation with a-a heavenly WMD. Listen, man, I can't take any more lies -- from anyone. 8x17: Goodbye Stranger

The song is revealing, really:

♪ tried to see your point of view ♪ ♪ hope your dreams will all come true ♪

♪ will we ever meet again? ♪ ♪ Feel no sorrow, feel no shame ♪ ♪ come tomorrow, feel no pain ♪ ♪ sweet devotion ♪ it's not for me ♪ ♪ just give me motion ♪ ♪ and set me free ♪

I flash-forward to Hannah in season 10, to that instinctive recoil from human emotions:

HANNAH: But t-those are human things. (10x01 Black) ... HANNAH: These f-feelings, they aren't for me, for us. (10x07 Girls, Girls, Girls)

I wonder.

///

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

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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.)

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