SPN - 5.07 - The Curious Case of Dean Winchester

[retro_eidas]

• I know the ep was named after the Brad Pitt/Cate Blanchett movie, but have nothing to say about that as I haven't seen that one. However, what little I know if it, I take it the most glaring similarity was the weird aging and doesn't really factor in the whole game element of the story. The roulette/playing for your life story is nothing new, but considering Armageddon, the movie I kept thinking about was The Seventh Seal (well, in this case, the Vegas edition). Both the movie and the ep, playing a game for life, chiefly that of a Savior-figure, with Revelation as a template. However, all the drama is sort of drained out when you know the angels would have just resurrected Dean anyway when they found him. *shrugs* I still enjoyed the ep though.
  
  
• I enjoyed Patrick a lot, but the first time we get two not totally evil witches, a male and a female (the female being the more sympathetic).... guess which one dies? Oh show.
  
  
• Also, the gong sound effect when Dean winked at the Asian hookers? Though I think show forgot one of the hookers sauntering up to Dean and saying, "Sucky sucky five dolla". STAY CLASSY, SHOW! *facepalm*
  
  
• Patrick's sad goodbye to his paramour, "I don't think I can do this without you." She dies. Dean gives the same speech to Bobby. Yeah, that's kind of anvil-dropping.
  
  
• "Dean! You're 30!" Technically, Sam, if you add Dean's years from Hell, he's just about the age he should be plus 10 years. There is a part of Dean that really is very much like an old man.... until he actually experienced what it's like to be physically that old and he clearly hated it. I cheered when he put down the damn cheeseburger for once. lol However, Dean actually wanting to take care of himself a little and appreciate & preserve the vibrancy of his life and youth while he has it, even if it's a small gesture like that, I just about died of shock.
  
  
• I did love the old curmudgeon banter between old!Dean and Bobby. Although I did find it interesting how ep put them on a similar page and understanding, but left Sam apart.
  
  
• Moral of the story, growing old sucks, but so does living so long you watch those you love growing old and dying around you. The show really does seem to be leaning towards the only way to go out is in a blaze of glory. However, there's also the letting go theme here too. Veering off on a tangent, but I wondered if there's any parallel here between humans and the also extremely long-lived angels? I did briefly think of Raphael's weariness compared to Bobby's depression and Lia's grief. Dean didn't allow Bobby to give up and Sam kept fighting for Dean, but with Lia it was acceptance. Dean, Bobby and Sam still have a journey ahead of them, but Lia's had long since been over (it ended having buried her daughter). Maybe something or someone will give new purpose to angels like Raphael to keep fighting and on the right side? My guess it's Castiel, following in Dean's and Sam's examples. Then at the end of their fight, Raphael and the other angels finally get their Paradise? Don't give up, but let go when the journey's course has come to it's end.
  
  
• Perhaps it's also all too telling - between Dean's heart attack and Bobby's suicidal depression - that Sam would have seemed to be the only one left standing when all was said and done, had their not been luck (or likely divine providence) on his side. I'd also have a depressing, but sadly fitting, image in my mind it will be Dean and Sam put in Lia and Patrick's shoes by season's end. Dean asking Sam to let him go, but this time without the fear of Sam having another breakdown (making him vulnerable to the likes of Ruby) or making a deal, because they've all likely more than learned their lesson about that shit by that point. Either Dean and Sam or Dean and Castiel. Either would absolutely break my heart.
  
  Various observations and spec:
  
• The chips Patrick was using were red and white. Seems to be a running color scheme this season (the title card, Sam's white suit and the red roses in 5.04 and other examples I know I'm forgetting).
  
  
• The chips also had a star and crescent symbol on them. Not really sure what to make of that, but before being adopted by Islam, it was apparently, amongst other things, an Ottoman symbol. The actor playing "Oirish" Patrick was actually of Turkish descent (though raised in the UK). Maybe the character he was playing had a little Turkish or Moor in him too? Not sure what that would mean either, but maybe if he does get involved in Armageddon, it wouldn't be the first holy war he'd been part of? 900-yrs-old would put his origins around the time of the Crusades and perhaps not necessarily fighting for the predominantly Christian area of his accent's origin, but the Muslim world? I did mention The Seventh Seal above (Max Von Sydow's character a disillusioned knight that's just come back from the Crusades, only to face Death and play a game of chess for his life). Sam likely represents Sydow's knight, while Patrick may represent the other side, as well as Death. However, IIRC, the knight didn't win that game, unlike Sam. Sam beats Death for Dean.
  
  
• I also found it interesting the only one that seemed to lose anything by ep's end was Patrick losing his equally immortal lover. Patrick should go look up another British-accented, 900-yr-old fantastical being who Death also seems to follow around like a shadow, almost as if they were one in the same, if he can catch him from all the manic, lonely oh so lonely time & space-hopping.
  
  
• I strongly suspect we haven't seen the last of Patrick. Also convenient we seem to be getting the Trickster in next week's ep. What they have in common are they're both powerful supernatural and, as far as we know, chthonic creatures that aren't total assholes and would have a vested interest in keeping Earth relatively as it is. Showing, besides the human (well, mostly human) hunters, Earth isn't without it's own defenses. Though apparently they were off pissing away their time when the world went to hell in 5.04. That might not be the case the next time around.
  
  
• About Bobby: My spoilery spec is he does indeed die in 5.10. However, as Jim says he is in 5.14, Bobby, or a Bobby-shaped form, comes back....as God. Either God's hopped into his corpse (if he did, ewww. WTF God??) or taken a Bobby-shaped form in dreams a la "Contact". Would be fitting they bury/burn Bobby in 5.11, then 3 eps later (that magical number 3 in the Bible), Bobby-but-not-Bobby returns.

Comments

[ibroketuesday.livejournal.com]

I would love for Raphael to come back and be on their side. That would just be awesome.

Heh, isn't Lucifer a little bit older than Michael? So if Sam were possessed too, HE'D finally be the big brother. XD

[eido.livejournal.com]

I really think Raphael is on a cusp. I think he still cares (he seemed genuinely remorseful both angels and humans were part of what he believed is a "godless universe), he's just tired. If they could inspire him again to a worthy cause, I could totally see him fighting for Team Earth.

IDK IDK, I always thought Michael was older? Michael does sound like God's right hand (of doom) - God ordering Michael to cast out Lucifer - but not that that necessarily means he's older. I do get an older brother vibe from him though in the way SPN presents older brothers. How "General" Michael is going to charge in and fix everything (that the other angels have screwed up - out of apathy and/or weariness). Much like Dean always having to be there to clean up Sam's messes.

[ibroketuesday.livejournal.com]

Clearly Dean and Castiel should have sex in front of him. That would inspire ANYONE.

I'm not sure and Google isn't being helpful, but I seem to recall that Lucifer was the oldest, highest and most favored of God's angels, the firstborn.