Far Away Eyes’ Deeper Look Supernatural 11.11 “Into the Mystic”

In many ways, it is the only way we can truly move forward in our lives. We can’t hope to succeed in the future if we’re too busy dragging our past with us. We can’t allow anything to cloud our hearts. This concept is captured and explored beautifully in “Into the Mystic.” It is this truth that is hidden so beautifully in Mildred’s advice to Dean. It is a cleansing of the heart that will help everyone in this episode—even if some are only taking their first steps on that journey. No matter the obstacles they face, the past sins they carry, or the fears they feel weigh them down, each character must face something in their own heart and cleanse it if they are to truly “follow your heart.”

The case that brings the Winchesters to Oak Park is simple on the surface. A man has died in a locked room. He bashed his brains in against the wall, screaming about a noise that no one else could hear. Thinking it a quick salt and burn, they handle it efficiently. Instead, it turns out to be a banshee. Along the way they meet Eileen and together they protect Mildred, a resident they fear may be vulnerable due to her heart condition.

First, let’s start with Mildred’s advice to Dean. Faced with waiting for sunset to arrive, and the time for the banshee to attack, she invites Dean to sit with her on the couch, watching the sunset. It’s a gorgeous sight. She simply wants to share with someone and show him what she sees in it. She asks him when the last time he’s watched the sunset without waiting for some gruesome monster to face. Not sure that he’ll want her advice, she remarks that he probably won’t want her secret to a long and happy life. Indeed, despite his line of work, Dean’s interested. So, she tells him, “Follow your heart. You do that, all the rest just figures itself out. I did that, I followed my heart. Traveled the world, made people smile, forget about their problems for a while. And then my heart said, ‘well, you’re done.’ I had my fill and retired and I love it.”

Underneath that simple advice, we realize that it’s much more about cleansing one’s heart. So much can tarnish our hearts, weigh them down, or make us vulnerable. Pain. Guilt. Anger. Vengeance. Fear. Each of these negative emotions can pollute our hearts. That can hold us back and prevent us from following our hearts or knowing our true purpose. And so, we must face these obstacles, cleanse the darker emotions away, and move forward.

What must Eileen cleanse from her heart in order to move forward? What must she face in this case?

In the beginning, she is a baby when her parents are taken by the very banshee that they’re hunting now. It brutally attacked her father, making him bash his own head in so it could feed. It, realizing her mother was trying to stop it, killed her next. A member of the Men of Letters, sent from the American delegation before the society went defunct, saved Eileen and raised her more like a hunter to help her avenge their deaths. She’s been hunting for this creature ever since, taking on other monsters along the way.

Raised the way she was, it means Eileen has only known the hunter life.

The current attacks have drawn her to the same retirement home. She’s convinced that the same banshee that killed her parents has started to kill its residents. Working the case alone, she watches Sam and Dean discuss it, reading their lips. Seeing that Dean refers to a “feeding time,” she’s certain they must be the monster. It’s a fair conclusion for her to make—considering out of all the people in the home they seem to be the newest on scene. Knowing that the banshee feeds at night, too, means that it’s easy for her to think that they’d be biding their time until nightfall.

This honest mistake is a fixable one. She manages to trap Sam in the laundry room, using a binding spell. There, Eileen learns that Sam is just like her—a hunter working the job. Even more, he’s also a Legacy. He explains to her that the other hunter is his brother. Eileen has never worked a case with someone else—aside from her mentor we can surmise. She holds up the gold blade she’s used to test Sam with and remarks, “Trust issues.”

This might be the first thing that Eileen must cleanse from her heart. She doesn’t trust other hunters and she jumped to a quick conclusion based on the hearsay she managed to glean from their conversation. In learning that she was wrong, however, Eileen is now open to the possibility that there are others just like her, hunting. In many ways, their stories may mirror hers—more than she realizes. In learning to trust Sam while on this particular hunt, Eileen also opens herself to the possibility of having allies and other connections she can go to when she may need a hand while on a job. Even better, Eileen also appreciates Sam’s attempts to use sign language—even if he made a mistake on his first try.

It’s a great first step along her path to a clean heart.

While they wait for Dean to return with more gold blades, it gives Sam and Eileen time to talk. They share stories about why they do what they do. Sam asks her if she knows what she’ll do after this. Once she gets her revenge, does she have a plan? What is it that her heart desires most—post vengeance? Eileen hasn’t really thought about it, so focused on what she’s been trained to do. She’s been so driven by one goal that it hasn’t occurred to her to think beyond or to what she might want for herself.

She does know, however, why she’s hunting this particular banshee. This one killed her parents—she’s certain of it and she wants nothing more than to gain her revenge on it. She tells Sam, “I never met them. They’re just pictures to me—but they’re family. My family.”

The weight of this monster still being out there is heavy—and Eileen needs to see it destroyed in order to put it in her past. The reason to kill it resides in avenging her family—and perhaps preventing others from going through what she has. Sam states gently, “Eileen, in my experience, revenge is not all it’s cracked up to be. Killing this banshee is not gonna bring your parents back.”

Eileen needs to hear this. While she hasn’t acted foolishly or with extreme anger while on this case, she must be prepared for it to feel differently than she expects once it’s over. It won’t necessarily bring her peace or joy or make up for what she’s lost. She will still be deaf—a side effect from the banshee screaming when she was just a baby. She must do this for the right reasons—and be ready for it to be different than any scenario she’s ever imagined.

In many ways, she’s already prepared herself for those possibilities. Eileen has taken on the job of hunting in order to get revenge for her parents—but it’s clear that she’s also taken this job to save people. It’s one reason why she takes swift action to apprehend Sam. She doesn’t want to see anyone else hurt by the creature, and she’ll take a gamble that she’s wrong if it means saving just one resident in the retirement home. In that way, she’s showing that she’s as much a Legacy as Sam and Dean are.

Nevertheless, Eileen must end this monster so that she can put it in her past and focus on her future. She could decide to leave the hunting life. She could follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a lawyer—or go to school and become anything she wants. This hunt is giving her the chance to close the book on this chapter of her life and to cleanse her heart of the pain it has caused.

Afterwards, she tells Sam, “It felt like just another kill.”

Eileen’s quite capable. Her disability isn’t really an issue—evidenced by her skill on the hunt. Certainly, it affects her daily life. She admits to Sam that he could call her, “but I won’t answer.” Nevertheless, at no point does Eileen seem weak or incompetent. Instead, she is strong, willful, and smart. She can use her disability to her advantage, showing that no matter the obstacle in her path that she can stand up to its limitations and transcend them. This wasn’t her first hunt or her first kill. She’s not a novice hunter getting her feet wet. Like the Winchesters themselves, she’s a Legacy of the Men of Letters. What she knows, the skills she has, and the experience she’s gained through the years make her a formidable ally and hunter. Eileen, therefore, admits to Sam that she will continue.

She tells him, “This is my life.”

This hunt did what it was supposed to do. It managed to cleanse her heart. Instead of living with mistrust and alone, Eileen has gained friends. She’s made a connection with Mildred. She’s bonded with Sam, giving her new insight into what they do. Where she was consumed by hunting for this monster, she can now truly focus on saving others just like Mildred. Eileen walked away from this hunt cleansed and unburdened by all the darkness that had pursued her through the years.

What about Dean?

When Mildred proposes to tell Dean the secret to a long and happy life, the elder Winchester is eager to hear it. She tells him to follow his heart—but dig deeper and we realize that Dean must cleanse his heart first to truly do that. There is a pollution—something that is blocking what it is really telling him. Something, deep inside, has been festering and growing—and in many ways, because of its complexity it’ll take a lot of time, effort, and awareness for Dean to truly purge it. Doing so, however, will be the only way that Dean will be able to truly take Mildred’s advice—and therefore perhaps live that long happy life.

At the beginning of the episode, Dean is concerned about Sam’s well being. His brother hasn’t left the Bunker in days, and so he is pushing that they take a case close by to get Sam’s mind off of what happened with Lucifer and the Cage. After all, Sam’s been having nightmares and struggling to sleep. It’ll be good for them both to get out and on the job.

Upon arriving, though, Dean drops subtle hints about his own mindset. He’s tempted to make a reservation at the retirement home. There are vacancies and he thinks perhaps they should make plans to stay there. Later, as they dig up the corpse of the man they suspect is the ghost responsible for killing people, he questions, “Seriously? No retirement?” Dean clearly is thinking about what they do this and if he wants to keep doing it. He’s been so enamored with the road, the life, and the job for so long—and now with another looming threat in Amara, he’s wondering if his heart is in it anymore.

We’ve seen Dean at this crossroads before—usually bringing the idea of leaving the job, retiring, or moving on when he’s afraid of something. He wanted to walk in “Croatoan” frightened by the order their father had left behind. He wanted to quit when faced with the possibility of an inevitable Apocalypse—going so far as the consider saying “Yes” to Michael for a time. Each time, Dean has done so in some way due to either fatigue or fear. Each time, he has had to find a way to overcome that and renew his commitment to the family motto of “saving people, hunting things, family business.”

This time is no different. In fact, contemplating his heart may be the very route he must take in order to overcome this new fear.

Amara. Her threat is large and frightening to Dean. She has professed to have a bond with him—through the Mark and more. She’s warned that he’ll never be able to kill her. She’s his “destiny,” and she “cannot be resisted.” Amara has taken Dean’s heart and twisted it around emotionally with this strange powerful hold she has over him. It has left Dean largely unable to articulate what she’s done to him. He’s scared of her power and what she can do to him. The strange bond she keeps trying to assert tries to mask his true heart’s desire—making it harder than ever to truly follow Mildred’s advice.

When Dean returns to the Bunker to grab the gold blades required to kill the banshee, he finds that it is occupied. He can hear their intruder—and that is most certainly what he is—rooting around in files and scrolls and books. It is Castiel—or so Dean thinks. Lucifer quickly pulls on the facade of Castiel, trying to keep his new found freedom and vessel secret for as long as possible. He also hopes to gain insider information so to use it against the Winchesters later. Lucifer tells Dean, “I had her in my sights. I should have finished her off.”

Dean, understanding how hard it is to truly follow through on killing the Darkness, states, “I tried to kill her.” He had tried stabbing her—twice. Once before she had fully acquired her power and once after. Both attempts ended in failure. Both times left him doubting and struggling to understand just what she’s doing to him. Lucifer quickly assesses, stating, “The two of you are connected somehow by the Mark.” That is only part of it. That is the surface answer of the problem. Dean can’t put it into words, unable to truly identify what she’s doing to him. Lucifer automatically jumps to the word attraction to label what is happening. Dean, frightened by what she’s done to him, remarks, “I know. I know, okay? Whatever it is — attraction, connection. I gotta tell you man, I don’t know if I can stop it. I don’t know that I can resist it.”

It’s telling that Dean can only use the words Lucifer supplies. So unable to name it himself and unable to articulate what he’s feeling and experiencing, he swears “Castiel” to secrecy. Until they know more and can truly speak about what is happening, they’ll simply not tell Sam. Truthfully, Dean wouldn’t even know where to begin to tell Sam. Besides, he’s already expressed as much of this feeling to his brother already. From the very moment Sam found him after the Darkness was initially released, he’s already told Sam about this bond. The stronger it’s become—and the more it’s twisted him around—the less Dean’s been able to understand it’s true meaning. He can’t tell Sam what he can’t really explain to himself.

That leaves Dean trying to understand Mildred’s advice—and to drill deeper into the thought of cleansing his heart, too. Amara has twisted his heart and made him uncertain about what he wants or should be doing.

Unfortunately, it also leaves Dean extremely vulnerable. Frightened by something he cannot name, it opens him up to the banshee’s attack. In the heat of the battle, as they try to prevent it from killing Mildred or taking away Eileen’s chance at revenge, it singles Dean out, screaming until he can’t take it anymore. He isn’t even able to try for an attack with his gold blade—a clear parallel to Dean’s difficulties and failures at killing Amara. Instead, he’s forced to bash his head into the wall, all in an attempt to stop that scream from invading his ears. He’s driven by its compulsion.

It isn’t until Mildred can trap the banshee in the symbol and Eileen can make the kill that Dean will stop. Being forced to do something like this must remind Dean of the larger threat in Amara, looming. He knows that she is patient, waiting for the exact moment to strike and collect on the bond she’s forcing on him.

And yet, she’s unable to blot out the truest form of his heart’s desire. Mildred points out that it’d never work between her and Dean—mainly because he’s already pining for another lady. Dean is and he isn’t. He most certainly has some strange connection to Amara, but she’s not what his heart’s truly set on. That’s set on something for more powerful—a bond that has been tested time and time again and emerged every time: the one forged with his brother, Sam.

Based on his comments about retirement, it’s possible that Dean means that he’ll accept any life with Sam—and it need not include hunting necessarily. As Sam confesses to his brother about what Lucifer had done to him while in the Cage, he takes in Sam’s apology. He tells him, “Well, I have. Hey, that’s in the past, man. What’s done is done. All that matters now, all that’s ever mattered is that we’re together, so shut up and drink your beer.”

In this singular moment, Dean is the most confident he’s been all episode long. He’s not conflicted about what’s happening to him. He’s not struggling to understand Amara’s hold. He’s steadfast that they’re together as brothers—and really, for Dean, that’s all he’s ever really wanted anyways.

It’s also when, despite the banshee targeting his vulnerability, he’s most vulnerable, too. Alone in his room, he’s faced with his thoughts. He’s faced with his own fears. Alone, he’s not keeping his mask on to keep it hidden from Sam. Dean has to seriously take in what his happening to him and try and understand what it all means.

The answer for Dean does lie with Mildred’s advice, however. He must find a way to buck Amara’s hold. He must find a way to keep her from tainting what he truly wants: a life with his brother in no matter the form it takes, be it hunting or not. He must follow his true heart’s desire and it is in it and through it that Dean will overthrow Amara’s call to “destiny.” Choosing his brother, in this case, may be the very thing that will help the Winchesters to save the world. Choosing his brother once more may be the very thing that will cleanse Dean’s heart—destroying any power Amara may hope to wield over him.

Dean is not the only one in need of cleansing. There’s something that is sullying Sam’s heart, too—preventing him from following his heart fully. As long as it lingers, sending its tendrils throughout it, Sam will find it harder to face the threats lurking out in the wider world beyond the Bunker. What is it that clouds his heart, then? What must he face head on and acknowledge if he, too, will manage to cleanse it and relieve the burden he carries? If he is to remain committed to honoring the phrase “saving people, hunting things, family business” in it’s fullest, Sam must handle this quickly.

Much of what has gripped his heart in “Into the Mystic” can be summed up in one word: Lucifer. His fresh encounter and time trapped with the Devil has taken a toll. He may have stood his ground and refused to become Lucifer’s vessel in a courageous and heroic moment—perhaps one of the strongest Sam has ever had—but the aftermath has started to settle over him. It has caused him to have extreme nightmares. Lucifer’s taunt “After the Leviathans, when your brother was trapped in Purgatory, you were here… with a girl and a dog,” haunts Sam, pulling on an emotional scar. It is a truth that he hasn’t fully dealt with or let go. Instead, he has let it fester, building up scar tissue around his heart in the worst way possible.

To reclaim some of his composure, Sam chooses to engage in assembling and disassembling his gun in a compulsive manner. The action is one he’s turned to in the past—soothing and meticulous in nature, it gives Sam the semblance of control he feels he lacks. He can try to best his time. He can make sure that his weapon is field ready. Instead of focusing on the thoughts floating around in his head, Sam can focus on the physical work his hands do—the feel of the weapon, the sounds of it as it clicks together, the sight of it put together, each part fitting into its intricate puzzle. It’s yet another attempt by Sam to hide from the very thing he must deal with, however. The action will only allow him to take the edge off for so long.

Dean realizes that Sam has been holed up in the Bunker too long after the latest encounter with Lucifer, and so convinces his brother to take on a case nearby. It’s a mere fifteen minutes away—no excuse for Sam to stay home or wheedle his way out of it. It sounds like a simple case. Perhaps he can use it to get back on his feet. Perhaps he can use it to reclaim the mission of “saving people, hunting things, family business.” Most of all, perhaps it’ll help Sam to cleanse his heart from what happened—and from the scar ripped open anew inside. It may be just the thing he needs to help move forward rather than being trapped in an endless loop of guilt, sorrow, and fear.

Sam can also focus on mentoring someone like Eileen—and even more see her as an equal that he respects and feels he can start to trust. After all, she does manage to get the jump on him, convinced that he’s either the banshee or working with it. Her skill on the job instantly makes him like her. Sometimes, Sam needs a sounding board to help voice the thoughts he’s yet to name.

They exchange their stories about the life—being hunters, Legacies of the Men of Letters, and revenge. He’s saddened to learn that her parents had been taken from her so brutally by this creature. To learn that she was trained by a member of the defunct Men of Letters and that they share this bond makes him feel that much closer to her. Until now, he believed that he and Dean were the only ones left, the only living reminders of the once powerful group.

And so, Sam admits quietly to her, “Yeah, I wouldn’t do this without my brother. He’s had my back every step of the way, even when I let him down.” Unlike Dean, Sam is able to put words to his struggle. He’s not going into explicit detail with Eileen—and he really doesn’t have to—but he’s able to voice what he’s been keeping pent up inside and perhaps allow himself to examine it for his own good.

It is a necessary first step towards cleansing his heart, too. He’s admitted to Eileen a portion of his guilt. In doing so, Sam can finally see it for himself in the light of day. It isn’t twisted by Lucifer’s taunts. It isn’t twisted by a memory thrown back in his face. This guilt is his to bear and to cleanse on his own. Until now, Sam hasn’t voiced it. Half the battle for him is to finally admit to the problem. The rest will fall into place now that he’s taken this first brave step in seeing the issue that’s scarred him for so long now.

To hold onto this guilt will only make his heart weaker. If he is to truly grasp what his heart desires—to truly “save all the people” he can, he must find a way to burn away the dark feelings he’s carried—ones that he buried and had dredged up to taunt and scar him further. His quiet admissions say so much, allow him to internalize their truths, and to finally release them.

Eileen is a kindred spirit, the kind of person Sam needed in the right place at the right time. Her capability and strength despite what society might see in her disability and the limitations it may place on her inspires Sam in ways he’s not entirely certain he’s ready to understand yet. His ability to open up to her comes mostly from his ability to empathize with her situation. This is clearly seen in his genuine but fumbled attempts a signing upon their first meeting. It’s seen in his gentle approach with her—never done in a patronizing manner, but always from a footing of equality. In many ways, it is just what he needed in this case. The monster itself is fairly self explanatory. It is in helping Eileen realize her goal and helping her to figure out what comes next that allows Sam to work through his own issues.

Nevertheless, the fact that the banshee attacked Dean also haunts Sam. It means his brother was vulnerable, raising questions he hasn’t the answer to just yet. It makes him wonder just what might be stalking his brother now—and how this may trace back to the Darkness. He won’t rest until he knows the truth—even if he must be patient about acquiring the answer to those troubling questions. He won’t make the same mistake twice—clearly as it has taken him this long to wrestle those inner demons and cleanse them from his heart this time.

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