Good or Evil? The Supernatural Question
Now that you’re perhaps depressed as you realize that both brothers have become the very things they despise it’s time to turn away from Supernatural. Put away the magazines, the fanfics, the favorite buttons on the computer search, stop counting down the days to the show and subscribing to every spoiler or interview search or RSS feed or twitter this or that; time to shelve Supernatural once and for all. The heroes are horrible, they kill, they maim, they torture, the do all the things they once said they wouldn’t or feared they could…or is it?
Proverbs 18:12 “Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.â€
Both Sam and Dean have had huge downfalls, both are due for some serious honor. Dean was proud (in his own self-destructive way) to go to hell if that meant Sam lived. He was sacrificing himself believing that was honorable, that it would honor what John did and that it would be for Sam’s best interests. Dean was very, very wrong. I say Dean’s pride is a bit more subtle than Sam’s but we know that Dean ‘prides’ himself on being able to face up to what he’s decided that was well displayed through most of Season 3 and in the end, he did face his death square on. That wasn’t the end of the story though as his greatest low came in hell when he became what he most despised. We finally got to see him come face to face with who and what he’d become in On The Head of a Pin and from there on his has been a fragile, faltering journey in healing. He was humbled as he’d never been humbled before and finally turned the corner when he set his Winchester Pride aside and apologized to Sam. Dean has honor coming.
Sam hit his lowest of lows in Lucifer Rising, like Dean it wasn’t until he came face to face to the horror of what he’d done that he hit that low, and no doubt he’s likely to have some humiliating moments still to come but he’s already started, he apologized to Dean. That’s the same as Dean finally telling Sam what happened to him and what he became in hell. We know Sam’s pride ruled much of his actions throughout Season 4. We saw it in Metamorphosis… “I’m not going to let it get that far!†We saw it as in On The Head of a Pin… “Dean’s not Dean anymore.†Chuck brought it into the open in Monster at the End of This Book… “I don’t know, maybe you like the control?†Sam shut him down quick after that, Chuck struck a nerve. Finally it was Sam’s heartfelt plea in When the Levee Breaks… “For once, Dean, trust me.†Sam, Dean has trusted you plenty of times; do you really believe Dean has never trusted you before? Wow, a very distorted view.
So, where do we go from here? Where do they go from here? I’m not in the writing room so I can only posit on the where…they go to redemption. Kripke has stated he has a five-year plan and that while he’s open (Hooray) to going on from here, he has every intention of completing this storyline completely. That tells me that Season 5 wraps this up and all the horrors, all the falls, all the humiliation, all the moments of turning our beloved boys (yeah, they’re ‘ours’) into unrecognizable torturers and murderers and addicts and wounded ones who want and need to ‘lick their wounds’ will come to closure. We’ve seen our boys at their best and at their worst and we’ll see them come through this, scarred, older, sadder, wiser, less larger than life and a whole lot more relatable. They’ve made terrible mistakes, what makes them heroic is that they learn, grow, pick themselves up and try again. If they can learn and not repeat, they’ll go far, very, very far.
Bring on Season 5.
Thanks for reading.
Elle2
Fantastic article. I do think the writers have changed their tune quite a bit over the seasons, and then changed them back when they needed to. Bobby was very concerned for Meg in season one, but then rather calmly shot Ruby in “Sin City” to see if the colt worked.
So, do I think the boys are murderers? I think they’re killers, but when I think murderer I think of innocent unsuspecting victims and I’m not so sure that they crossed that line. Sam possibly with the nurse in Lucifer Rising, but she was still a demon so in most ways it really wasn’t any different than the knife.
Trina,
You bring up an excellent point regarding Bobby (and I hate to admit but he never entered my thoughts here — and I think Bobby is AWESOME!)
You are right though, he had great concern for Meg yet none for Ruby…wow…wow.
I agree regarding your thoughts on killers vs. murderers…would have made an even better title (sometimes I just get stuck on the titles, Alice even added to mine and made it better but Killer or Murderer would have been really cool.
I just love looking at the show from many angles…and with now only (Whee, ONLY) less than four weeks to go, there’s that much less time to look at the angels.
Thanks for commenting
Great article, Elle2! It’s an interesting look at the show.
I tend to agree with Trina, that “murderer” and “killer” are two different things. I’m inclined to think that if one takes a life in self-defence, that they are more aptly classified as a killer whereas a murderer is one who seeks an innocent person out to snuff out their life for the sake of killing. Even killer seems to be the wrong flavour – I wouldn’t consider someone who fought in a war to be a killer, though they likely had taken many lives. I don’t believe there is a truly perfect term for one’s who, like Sam and Dean in the Supernatural world, take lives in the course of warfare whether it is self-defence, defence of others or stopping serious evil. (By the way, I don’t mean to imply I condone warfare or justify it, I’m simply looking at circumstances and scenarios in which certain terms are more applicable than in other instances).
Hmm, tricky, tricky….
😐
Hi, Elle,
It is tricky, tricky, you’re right. THat’s the whole point of the article…well, at least one of several, is that there is no easy answer here. They boys are flawed, they’ve done unspeakable things (that we, of course, speak about) and some of the things they did were for self-defense, some because of pride (Dean’s and Sam’s) some because they were left with nothing left but despair (again, both Dean and Sam) and the list goes on and on.
Do I condone war? No, but I understand the necessity of it, however. And you’re right, what is the best term and is there even a ‘best’ term, killer, murderer, defender of good? And then who defines good…brings me back to my beginning, I believe in moral absolutes, some things are good and others are not, it’s how we discover those truths and then live them out that defines us.
I’m enjoying the journey of the brothers and from what I glean from the ‘teasers’ coming out about Season 5, it’s going to be an awesome year (again!)
🙂
In legal terms ” murder ” implies premeditation, if someone is trying to kill you and in the struggle to preserve your life you end up killing them it’s not murder. I know this sounds like so much sophist hair-splitting but I do think the circumstances leading up to an incedent have some bearing on the judgement of the incedent itself.
This all means jack shit when applied to demons and whatnot but it does make good nailbiting TV. I think you’re quite right that Sam and Dean have both ended up somewhere they never intended to be surrounded by the smoking wreckage of their moral code. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions … I’m looking forward to seeing how the writers shine them up again!
Interesting and thought provoking!
I, too, see a difference between murder and killing. For example, the police shot Ronald in “Nightshifter”. They were doing their jobs, murders? I think not, killers? Yeh, the guy did die.
Possessed Sam murdered Steve Wandell, not possessed Sam murdered Jake (there was no danger from Jake at that point and Sam could have just incapasitated him). I could list more “meat suits” that were probably ok and would have lived if not stabbed by the knife or shot with the colt.
I think Dean has become more sensitive to the human host than Sam (although Sam tried to justify his demonic exorcisms as being more humane…I think it might have been more a case of him lying to himself).
However, I do want to debate Meg. She likely died when she went out of the window. Sure you could say it’s all Sam’s fault for flipping the alter, but I think not. I don’t blame the boys for her death at all. And the “demon brother” shot her with the fake colt anyways, that also killed the human.
Hi, Alysha,
Great comments. It’s interesting, I too think Dean has become softer to the human ‘meat suits’ while at the same time telling Sam to use the knife to kill the demons which in turn, of course, kills the human…tis a quandry.
The Supernatural highway is littered with broken, battered and in many cases lifeless bodies…sheesh, what does that say about us fans who still adore it? 😕
Great post, elle2.
Another layer of complexity in the show is that the question is not just who you kill and why, but also how. For instance, if Sam hadn’t been using his psychic powers (and presumably, if he hadn’t been drinking demon blood to, as he thinks, enhance them), Dean would be dead and back in Hell (On the Head of a Pin).
Faellie is correct that it was Sam and not Castiel who saved Dean in “Head of a Pin”
And its possible the Alastair’s host was already dead from the angel torture, which was stated to have taken place off screen, and if not from them, then when Dean took over.