Put away childish things

[trinityofone]

Rather than analyze to death the wonderful hospital scene, which I think other people have already discussed ably, I wanted to talk a little about Dean and the movement we're already beginning to see away from him being "the guy who drives the car," as Ben Edlund put it. While for Sam much of this episode was about the first step being admitting you have a problem, for Dean I think it was the first step toward becoming a leader and not just a follower, the good little soldier taking orders.

Part of that was nicely bookended by the opening and closing scenes: in the first, Dean is asked to give up his necklace to aid in the cause, and in the last, he offers to give up the Impala. These are almost inarguably his two most valued possessions—possibly his only two constant things, with the third maybe being his dad's leather jacket (which he notably was not wearing in this episode). At the episode's start, he has to be persuaded to give up one of these symbolic objects—which he does only with a nicely petulant and immature "Don't lose it!" By the end he's offering the other—and the much more practically useful of the two—freely. Part of which can be attributed to who's doing the asking, and part to the fact that I think Dean had to know Sam was unlikely to say yes, but I do think it shows a growth. It's not that Dean's cutting ties, but that he's learning or relearning the importance of things.

What else was Dean required to give up in this episode? Well, obviously: Sam. Now, I don't think Dean can or will or should ever give up his brother for good (he wouldn't be Dean anymore if he did), but starting from the scene in the church basement where we see Dean choosing—for the first time?—not to go off running half-cocked when Sam is in trouble but staying to come up with a plan, I think we have the beginnings of Dean-the-leader, who has to consider other people's safety—the safety of the world—above that of his brother. Hopefully we will subsequently also get Dean able to recognize that Sam can (usually) take care of himself. This separation seems very necessary to me in order to get them back on even ground again: last season, Sam thought Dean wasn't strong enough anymore, and Dean thinks Sam isn't trustworthy anymore. These doubts reflect their own inner doubts. They both have a lot to prove, to themselves and to each other.

Meanwhile, Dean is without his usual support structure—as he says, his instinct when faced with an "intellectual" problem is to call Bobby or Sam. But no one underestimates Dean's intelligence more than Dean, and as we saw, with Ellen there to smack him around a bit (please can she be around to do that all the time?), he was totally capable of figuring this out on his own. (Yes, Rufus, really!) So while Dean should never have to give up his resources—Sam and Bobby and Ellen and Cas and everybody else—he does need to give up his dependence on them.

After watching 5x01 many (many) times, I finally came up with an explanation for the whole "Michael sword" thing that satisfied me—beyond Zachariah just being a lying douche. And that's that he's a narrow-minded oblivious douche. I spoke here about how Zachariah's actions in priming Dean did not make sense to me, from Zachariah's perspective, if he always thought that Dean's sole role was as a meatsuit. I'm much more taken by the idea that the prophecy that Dean will be the one to stop Lucifer is real, but that Zachariah, after getting to know Dean and clearly failing to appreciate his many charms, came up with the Michael thing because in his mind it's the only plausible explanation. Dean as Dean can't possibly stop Lucifer, thinks Zachariah. He's disrespectful! He's a simpering wad of insecurity and self-loathing! So obviously Michael's going to have to jump in there (literally) and solve this problem that oh-so-human Dean clearly can't.

I am really looking forward to Dean proving Zachariah wrong. And I think we saw the first steps toward that in this episode.

Comments

[aesc.livejournal.com]

I think we have the beginnings of Dean-the-leader, who has to consider other people's safety—the safety of the world—above that of his brother

Yes! And Dean reinforces that, I think, when he says to Sam (at the end) that on hunts these days he spends more time worrying about Sam than about either himself or the immediate situation. That speaks to the erosion of his trust in Sam--because Sam's always been there to watch his back--but also to his new awareness, as you say, that there's a much bigger picture and he has responsibilities in it. Oddly, that sounds almost angel-ish to me (minus the mostly-irredeemable douchiness), learning how to rethink attachment to people and things when the world demands it.

I also agree with you on Zachariah's complete misreading of Dean--it's not only accurate, but ties in very nicely with my desire to see Dean be able to defeat Lucifer on his own. We might have had this conversation before, but it seems like the theme of Dean's life has been to give and give and give--his life, his soul, and now his amulet and his car--and I would love to see him defeat Lucifer without sacrificing himself, his essential Dean-ness.

Your post actually got me thinking about the possibility that Dean and Sam taking War's ring might bring up another way to defeat Lucifer. It's still way too early to tell, but robbing War of his power... that seems pretty big. If they can do that, maybe there's another step toward Dean being able to stop is, sans Michael, sans God.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Yes! Dean gives endlessly of himself, body and—quite literally—soul. I think you're right to highlight the cessation of that as another essential part of him attaining maturity. Wouldn't it be amazing to see Dean actually gain some sense of self-worth, of himself as important in a manner that goes beyond simply being another tool to be used, another thing he can sacrifice?

I think the ring itself might be significant. That we might see them collecting objects of power from each of the horsemen, and using those in some way. I like this idea because it's got that old-fashioned questy element to it, and I love me some quests.

Also, you know Dean could always use some more bling, so. *g*

[anniehow.livejournal.com]

Sorry, jumping in, but I was skimming and had a bit of an epiphany: They already have Death's sickle! Alistair "borrowed" and presumably still had it when the angels smote him (hee! ZOT! Still makes me glee) in Death Takes a Holiday! So the angels should have that! Unless it conveniently got left behind in that warded funeral house...