The Winchester Family Business

This is for my friend Jenniffer, who has been oh so patient in letting me get this done.  A lot has been going on in the last month.  Jenniffer is my longest and one of my best online friends.  She's the only one that followed me from another fandom and I'm so thrilled to have introduced her to this show.  She's a major Castiel fan, so hopefully this gives the angel the credit he deserves.

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So, if you were a being with impressive powers over inferior beings, those powers might as well be used to their coolest advantage, right?   If one thing’s a given about our blue-eyed angel, his stealth like appearances creating a fascinating mystique to his character, one that has plenty of us either pumping our fists or just plain drooling. He’s the obedient angel that had no idea what he was in for when he was assigned to rescue from Hell a human by the name of Dean Winchester.

In this homage to this angel in a trench coat, I’m recalling all those wonderful entrances that make him so loved. 

Lazarus Rising

Yes, we’ve brought this one up countless times. Many fans have brought up the fact (including to Misha himself) that this is the greatest introduction to a new character ever. How could it not be? Dean and Bobby brazenly decide to summon whatever being it is they’re up against. The wind blows, rafters jiggle, and the doors bust wide open. Enter the stoic man in a suit and trench coat, that’s so powerful the lightbulbs bust as he walks by. He isn’t stopped by gunshots, and Ruby’s demon killing knife has no effect either. So what is he?

“I am an angel of the Lord,” he tells Dean matter-of-factly. He has the dark badass angel wings to prove it! It isn’t just the bombshell that angels are walking the earth for the first time in 2,000 years. It’s his ultimate fascination over Dean’s reaction to seeing an angel and his complete lack of faith. Castiel had no idea at that point where his relationship with Dean would take him, for humans end up being the most challenging beings he’s ever faced. He gets the perfect closing too! “Because God commanded it. Because we have work for you.” Hell yeah!


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The very first mention of Castiel comes in season 3, when he is one of the beings mentioned at the start of the invocation Sam reads over the grave of the sea captain in Red Sky At Morning.  (I haven't found a transcript of the invocation, but it appears to start by calling on "Aziel, Castiel, Lemistiel...".)  "Red Sky At Morning" is the only episode of Supernatural which was written by Laurence Andries, who is otherwise listed as a consulting producer on Season 3 of Supernatural for the episodes before the writers' strike.  Neither he nor anyone else can have known what he was starting.

"What know we of the Blest above but that they sing, and that they love?" (William Wordsworth)

The big difficulty in understanding Castiel is how little information we have about him.   We are shown few of Castiel's interactions with anyone except Dean, or with various fallen or disobedient (and therefore largely unreliable) angels.  Apart from Dean, there's no-one who talks about Castiel when he's not around, and there's almost no information about what Castiel has been doing and who he has been with.   In  It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester,  when Sam is introduced to Castiel Sam says "I've heard a lot about you".  Really?  Sam may have heard a lot from Dean about what Castiel has done, but what could he have heard about Castiel himself?  Even when we look at what Castiel has said and done, his statements and actions for most of his time on earth have been compromised by the orders he has been given, and by disarray, dissention and disobedience amongst the angelic host.  He's beautiful, and he's an enigma.



For all the latest Supernatural info and article links, follow The Winchester Family Business on Twitter at @WinFamBusiness