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SPN 4.18; or, this is the longest, most meta-y ep review I have ever written
This is some nonsensical episode commentary, with some historical and philosophical and nonsensical meta tossed in. Warnings for capslock and words like "textual communities."
Pretty much this sums it up:
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aesc: omg, I am trying to write about this and I CAN'T
aesc: I don't even know where to begin!
unamaga: can i make the suggestion of FHAWOGIJKAWF CAS AND DEAN ARE IN LOVE
aesc: can I quote you?
unamaga: absolutely
unamaga: we need to get the word out to the masses
Dean and Cas's Epic Love
Okay, so I am starting there. DEAN PRAYING FOR CASTIEL TO HELP HIM AND CASTIEL ANSWERING, EVEN IF HE COULDN'T IMMEDIATELY GIVE DEAN THE ANSWER HE WANTED, AND HOW ABSOLUTELY BROKEN CASTIEL WAS THAT HE STILL FEELS TOO CONSTRAINED BY HIS ORDERS AND HOW VERY VERY VERY MUCH HE WANTS TO HELP DEAN BECAUSE HE KNOWS DEAN NEEDS IT, LIKE NEEDS IN THE WORST, MOST DESPERATE SENSE OF THE WORD. Wait, fixing capslock. I absolutely love how the writers are taking Castiel on his own journey, how he's still conflicted, caught between his orders and his habit of looking at the big picture (which actually pays off when he tells Dean why he can't interfere) and the dawning knowledge that the microcosm--Dean's pain and fear, his need to keep Sam safe, his conviction that he's not strong enough to save Sam and save the world--has its own importance... Oh my god. His face. I just... I'm sorry. I can't.
HE LOVES DEAN, OKAY? THERE I SAID IT AND I'LL SAY IT AGAIN. HE LOVES DEAN AND THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO IT.
The Prophet Chuck
Okay, I admit, I loved Chuck from the second I saw him in the previews. I hope we get to see him again, with the proviso, Kripke, that he doesn't die. Sadly, most prophets tend to end badly, but I hope maybe he'll go the way of Elijah and get a free ticket to heaven.
Part of me--the shrieking, gleeful fangirl part--found Chuck and the Winchester Gospel hi-fucking-larious. ("You should have seen Luke" [I actually would have thought Mark, for some reason XD] Also, Castiel admires his work. This constitutes proof that Cas is a total Dean fanboy, and has been reading about him long before he ever got to meet Dean in person.unamaga and I have concocted visions of Cas being all anxious about the possibility of meeting Dean, the Dean Winchester and flailing to himself and having extra archival copies locked up somewhere, where the other angels can't make fun of him. ANYWAY.) My nerd side, however, loved the way this episode plays with text and notions of relative value, and looks back sardonically to the underground formation of Christianity (in all its forms, including the stuff that was eventually considered heretical, like gnosticism),* by having fans, with their endless fighting and complaining and writing of stories, eventually--perhaps--performing essentially the same tasks and activities that allowed Christianity to survive long enough for Constantine to legitimize it. If you look even cursorily at the early history of Christianity, when Christians were really little more than heterodox sects of Jews and Gentiles who could not quite figure each other out, what you're really looking at is a bunch of disparate textual communities, connected by lines of correspondence (letters, apostolic journeys, isolated meetings in initiates' private homes), with an uncertain access to a very amorphic group of texts and their own separate traditions of interpretation. And a lot of fighting and bitching at each other, and making up their own stuff when what exists doesn't suit them, or doesn't answer their questions.
Also, being persecuted and chronically misunderstood by a hostile majority, and not understanding why your crazy story about a guy who died and rose from the dead and is the son of God isn't more popular than it is.
And that is, basically, what fandom is, in some ways. And the 'nod' to our discipleship, taken in light of the way I decided to think about the episode, is pretty damn awesome.
Fate, destiny, free will, and oh my god, Dean and Cas
I can't remember where I saw it (I'm sorry!!!) but someone was talking about the preview for 4.18 and about the age-old problem of destiny and free will, and how you can choose freely when there's a God who knows what's going to happen to you every step of the way. I started thinking about it last week, but decided to hold off until I saw this episode to try to formulate my thoughts. I didn't count on being left almost completely incoherent by this episode, however, but I'll try my best.
Basically, the problem of free will has never been solved, and what we think of as "free will" has never meant one consistent, universally-accepted thing. The sense we have now, that free will entails an individual agent (the person who does things) who is the originator of action or who makes a choice between possible courses of action, and who bears an ethical or moral responsibility for that choice, is purely Western, and mostly modern. Colloquially, the sense of free will is that we can do whatever we want, without anything else predetermining our action, but this is essentially, a fallacy.
In medieval Western (Christian) thought, free will meant that you, as a human, are given the option to do your own thing or, conversely, to take up the station and responsibilities as a human that are assigned to you by God and nature. The freest person, and true freedom, wasn't found in the guy who says, "Hey, fuck y'all, I'm fucking gonna watch Law and Order on Sunday," but in the guy who accepts he is meant to be in a specific relationship with the created world and with the divine, who subordinates his own desires to higher-order things. This, for most moderns, is fairly whacked, but that was how free will worked for a good long time. (Or, properly, liberum arbitrium, which is the ability to make one's own judgments between right and wrong and to choose between them; Augustine believed that, after the fall, this judgment and choice was impaired, and good could only be chosen with the assistance of divine grace. I personally think that's crap, but anyway!)
The problem with believing in purely free will is that it runs up against difficulties in the here-and-now before it can even think about issues it might have with an all-knowing deity. We're all constrained by the prior baggage in our lives, by class, race, and sex, by cultures that do not allow us choices in certain matters, or make such choices so highly determined and weighted with expectation that they really aren't choices at all. The way we think about things, the categories and assumptions we bring to our experience of the world at an unconscious level, influences our choices as well, whether they're life-changing or minor. Further, even when we make conscious choices in the hopes of averting an outcome we sense to be coming, the choice comes to nothing and shit happens anyway; Dean discovers this when he orders tofu (bwahahahaha!) and, through no fault of his own, gets a bacon cheeseburger instead. Really, a lot of the stuff Dean tries to avoid is stuff that is, ultimately, far more out of his control than he'd like to think--the waitress messing up, the absent-minded mother, the jerk of a car thief. Even Sam, who is less under control than Dean ever thought; Dean never thought for a second that Sam would burn those hex bags.
In a sense, SPN points out that free will isn't as free as we think: it's more limited, it isn't as satisfying, and it has its costs. I think Castiel is starting to become aware of this, the potential for immense gain as well as immense loss if he knowingly disobeys and takes Dean's side. Dean, despite his insistent refusal to believe in destiny (and I don't think for a second that Zachariah's lesson in 4.17 has helped him accept it in any way), is continuing to make his own choices but is being led down a specific path by forces that don't have the same investment in freedom that we do. He tells Tessa in 2.01 that everything is a choice, life and death; Tessa tells him that, while she can't take him against his will, there are consequences to refusal that can be dire. And I think that just points to how the show is demonstrating--maybe knowingly, maybe inadvertently, I don't know--that, really, that the concepts that underpin and control the thing we call Western Culture, which are maybe not just concepts but texts as well--can't provide the absolute reassurance that we want. Sam's had his faith stripped away, superficial as it may/may not be; Dean is discovering that faith in something he can't trust of his own free will, but something he has to trust to get him through this for Sam's sake... that's a lot harder than any theologian or Sunday school teacher can make it look.
In my more optimistic moments, I think SPN is attempting to negotiate a middle ground, by positing, as Castiel tells Dean in 4.03, that there are many roads to one place. A person could, conceivably, have an infinite number of options to choose from, although they all lead to an end that only the people Up There can see, if they can see it at all. Think of it as being summoned to something seriously important, and you have to be there in person for it... That's the constraint, but within its boundaries you have a lot of options: you can fly, take the train, take the bus, hitchhike, pick any one of a dozen possible routes to drive yourself, or with a friend or with your dog, or you could pick any combination of these. The method doesn't matter; what matters is that you arrive, that you're there when you're required. To me, that's free will in SPN. And being able to drive a bitching vintage car for a good part of it... Well, that's the best part of all.
Blargh, Zachariah.
OH MY GOD DEAN AND CAS'S EPIC LOVE
I wouldn't mind seeing Chuck again.
How did Lilith find out she wouldn't survive?
Oh, Sam and Deaaaaan
CASTIEL'S VERY SAD FACE *FLAIL*
DEAN IS TOTALLY A BLUES MAN, "TRAVELING RIVERSIDE BLUES" FOR THE GODDAMN WIN
That is all for now.
Pretty much this sums it up:
aesc: omg, I am trying to write about this and I CAN'Taesc: I don't even know where to begin!unamaga: can i make the suggestion of FHAWOGIJKAWF CAS AND DEAN ARE IN LOVEaesc: can I quote you?unamaga: absolutelyunamaga: we need to get the word out to the massesDean and Cas's Epic Love
Okay, so I am starting there. DEAN PRAYING FOR CASTIEL TO HELP HIM AND CASTIEL ANSWERING, EVEN IF HE COULDN'T IMMEDIATELY GIVE DEAN THE ANSWER HE WANTED, AND HOW ABSOLUTELY BROKEN CASTIEL WAS THAT HE STILL FEELS TOO CONSTRAINED BY HIS ORDERS AND HOW VERY VERY VERY MUCH HE WANTS TO HELP DEAN BECAUSE HE KNOWS DEAN NEEDS IT, LIKE NEEDS IN THE WORST, MOST DESPERATE SENSE OF THE WORD. Wait, fixing capslock. I absolutely love how the writers are taking Castiel on his own journey, how he's still conflicted, caught between his orders and his habit of looking at the big picture (which actually pays off when he tells Dean why he can't interfere) and the dawning knowledge that the microcosm--Dean's pain and fear, his need to keep Sam safe, his conviction that he's not strong enough to save Sam and save the world--has its own importance... Oh my god. His face. I just... I'm sorry. I can't.
HE LOVES DEAN, OKAY? THERE I SAID IT AND I'LL SAY IT AGAIN. HE LOVES DEAN AND THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO IT.
The Prophet Chuck
Okay, I admit, I loved Chuck from the second I saw him in the previews. I hope we get to see him again, with the proviso, Kripke, that he doesn't die. Sadly, most prophets tend to end badly, but I hope maybe he'll go the way of Elijah and get a free ticket to heaven.
Part of me--the shrieking, gleeful fangirl part--found Chuck and the Winchester Gospel hi-fucking-larious. ("You should have seen Luke" [I actually would have thought Mark, for some reason XD] Also, Castiel admires his work. This constitutes proof that Cas is a total Dean fanboy, and has been reading about him long before he ever got to meet Dean in person.
unamaga and I have concocted visions of Cas being all anxious about the possibility of meeting Dean, the Dean Winchester and flailing to himself and having extra archival copies locked up somewhere, where the other angels can't make fun of him. ANYWAY.) My nerd side, however, loved the way this episode plays with text and notions of relative value, and looks back sardonically to the underground formation of Christianity (in all its forms, including the stuff that was eventually considered heretical, like gnosticism),* by having fans, with their endless fighting and complaining and writing of stories, eventually--perhaps--performing essentially the same tasks and activities that allowed Christianity to survive long enough for Constantine to legitimize it. If you look even cursorily at the early history of Christianity, when Christians were really little more than heterodox sects of Jews and Gentiles who could not quite figure each other out, what you're really looking at is a bunch of disparate textual communities, connected by lines of correspondence (letters, apostolic journeys, isolated meetings in initiates' private homes), with an uncertain access to a very amorphic group of texts and their own separate traditions of interpretation. And a lot of fighting and bitching at each other, and making up their own stuff when what exists doesn't suit them, or doesn't answer their questions.Also, being persecuted and chronically misunderstood by a hostile majority, and not understanding why your crazy story about a guy who died and rose from the dead and is the son of God isn't more popular than it is.
And that is, basically, what fandom is, in some ways. And the 'nod' to our discipleship, taken in light of the way I decided to think about the episode, is pretty damn awesome.
Fate, destiny, free will, and oh my god, Dean and Cas
I can't remember where I saw it (I'm sorry!!!) but someone was talking about the preview for 4.18 and about the age-old problem of destiny and free will, and how you can choose freely when there's a God who knows what's going to happen to you every step of the way. I started thinking about it last week, but decided to hold off until I saw this episode to try to formulate my thoughts. I didn't count on being left almost completely incoherent by this episode, however, but I'll try my best.
Basically, the problem of free will has never been solved, and what we think of as "free will" has never meant one consistent, universally-accepted thing. The sense we have now, that free will entails an individual agent (the person who does things) who is the originator of action or who makes a choice between possible courses of action, and who bears an ethical or moral responsibility for that choice, is purely Western, and mostly modern. Colloquially, the sense of free will is that we can do whatever we want, without anything else predetermining our action, but this is essentially, a fallacy.
In medieval Western (Christian) thought, free will meant that you, as a human, are given the option to do your own thing or, conversely, to take up the station and responsibilities as a human that are assigned to you by God and nature. The freest person, and true freedom, wasn't found in the guy who says, "Hey, fuck y'all, I'm fucking gonna watch Law and Order on Sunday," but in the guy who accepts he is meant to be in a specific relationship with the created world and with the divine, who subordinates his own desires to higher-order things. This, for most moderns, is fairly whacked, but that was how free will worked for a good long time. (Or, properly, liberum arbitrium, which is the ability to make one's own judgments between right and wrong and to choose between them; Augustine believed that, after the fall, this judgment and choice was impaired, and good could only be chosen with the assistance of divine grace. I personally think that's crap, but anyway!)
The problem with believing in purely free will is that it runs up against difficulties in the here-and-now before it can even think about issues it might have with an all-knowing deity. We're all constrained by the prior baggage in our lives, by class, race, and sex, by cultures that do not allow us choices in certain matters, or make such choices so highly determined and weighted with expectation that they really aren't choices at all. The way we think about things, the categories and assumptions we bring to our experience of the world at an unconscious level, influences our choices as well, whether they're life-changing or minor. Further, even when we make conscious choices in the hopes of averting an outcome we sense to be coming, the choice comes to nothing and shit happens anyway; Dean discovers this when he orders tofu (bwahahahaha!) and, through no fault of his own, gets a bacon cheeseburger instead. Really, a lot of the stuff Dean tries to avoid is stuff that is, ultimately, far more out of his control than he'd like to think--the waitress messing up, the absent-minded mother, the jerk of a car thief. Even Sam, who is less under control than Dean ever thought; Dean never thought for a second that Sam would burn those hex bags.
In a sense, SPN points out that free will isn't as free as we think: it's more limited, it isn't as satisfying, and it has its costs. I think Castiel is starting to become aware of this, the potential for immense gain as well as immense loss if he knowingly disobeys and takes Dean's side. Dean, despite his insistent refusal to believe in destiny (and I don't think for a second that Zachariah's lesson in 4.17 has helped him accept it in any way), is continuing to make his own choices but is being led down a specific path by forces that don't have the same investment in freedom that we do. He tells Tessa in 2.01 that everything is a choice, life and death; Tessa tells him that, while she can't take him against his will, there are consequences to refusal that can be dire. And I think that just points to how the show is demonstrating--maybe knowingly, maybe inadvertently, I don't know--that, really, that the concepts that underpin and control the thing we call Western Culture, which are maybe not just concepts but texts as well--can't provide the absolute reassurance that we want. Sam's had his faith stripped away, superficial as it may/may not be; Dean is discovering that faith in something he can't trust of his own free will, but something he has to trust to get him through this for Sam's sake... that's a lot harder than any theologian or Sunday school teacher can make it look.
In my more optimistic moments, I think SPN is attempting to negotiate a middle ground, by positing, as Castiel tells Dean in 4.03, that there are many roads to one place. A person could, conceivably, have an infinite number of options to choose from, although they all lead to an end that only the people Up There can see, if they can see it at all. Think of it as being summoned to something seriously important, and you have to be there in person for it... That's the constraint, but within its boundaries you have a lot of options: you can fly, take the train, take the bus, hitchhike, pick any one of a dozen possible routes to drive yourself, or with a friend or with your dog, or you could pick any combination of these. The method doesn't matter; what matters is that you arrive, that you're there when you're required. To me, that's free will in SPN. And being able to drive a bitching vintage car for a good part of it... Well, that's the best part of all.
* = that said, I could do with a bit less of the Christianity. There are lots of way the world could end, writers, and the Apocalypse of John is only one of them.Other things
Blargh, Zachariah.
OH MY GOD DEAN AND CAS'S EPIC LOVE
I wouldn't mind seeing Chuck again.
How did Lilith find out she wouldn't survive?
Oh, Sam and Deaaaaan
CASTIEL'S VERY SAD FACE *FLAIL*
DEAN IS TOTALLY A BLUES MAN, "TRAVELING RIVERSIDE BLUES" FOR THE GODDAMN WIN
That is all for now.
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I loved this ep with the heat of a thousand suns. The sizzling chemistry between Castiel and Dean, oh yeah, that's the good stuff. And Dean's a Vonnegut fan. Why is that so hot?
I also loved that Sam and Lilith were at a stalemate. It's wonderful to see Sam have so much power, no matter how ill-gotten it is.
Gah. I loved everything about this. From the book covers to Dean stretched out rather charmingly on the bed reading them, to Sam confiding in Chuck--everything.
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Chuck is awesome, I agree. I would love to see him again.
And Dean's a Vonnegut fan.
I love the look Sam gave him XD And Dean was all, "What, a dude can't fucking read Vonnegut?" Also, Dean stretched out on his bed reading reminded me HUGELY of old paintings of daintily-reclining ladies, or else romance novel covers with the heroine in repose while her barechested kilt-clad hero looms over her.
And, you know, I love Castiel more and more with each episode. I'm not sure how that's possible at this point, but I do.
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Oh, and I totally had a fit of squee when Dean gave his two favorite songs. Every episode I love him more and I think he can't do anything else to be more perfect and THEN HE GOES AND DOES IT.
Also, CAS' FACE, HOLYSHIT. The way he called to Dean to make sure he stayed and heard him out! THAT ENTIRE SCENE, OHMYGAWD. I officially have a favorite episode now, and I'm thinking you do too. ;)
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I KNOW. I was reduced to incoherence and keyboardmashing in my exchange with
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Your review = Epic Win!
Also, I clearly need to know who sings "Traveling Riverside Blues", god I hope it was someone old school...
I am the Prophet...Chuck! I really really want to see chuck agian, he was awsome!
Castiels character development is just Woah!
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Oh, it was :D Robert Johnson (yeah, that Robert Johnson from "Crossroads Blues"!) wrote the original lyrics; it's been covered by Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton. I have the Clapton version, but I'm pretty sure I have the original Robert Johnson recording on my HD somewhere.
Also: YAY CHUCK!!!!! He's so awesome. "I am the Prophet Chuck!" And Castiel, oh, he needs hugs :D
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I hadn't done that in a while... *is joy*
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I KNOW!!!! That scene, and the scene with Castiel, Dean, and Chuck are now wayyyyy up there on my List of Favorite Scenes Ever.
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So yeah. <33333
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I THINK YOU CAN SAFELY ASSUME THAT YOU ARE REFERENCING THE TEXT WITH THIS STATEMENT! OMG! THE LOVE WAS EPIC!
*cough* Ahem. I was so in love with this episode that I didn't have any need to post about it. Before I read your meta, that is, but now you've spurred some thinking. Oh, btw, when you put your meta hat on you're
sexyawesome.Because oh my gosh, woman, you rock, among other things for this:
The way we think about things, the categories and assumptions we bring to our experience of the world at an unconscious level, influences our choices as well, whether they're life-changing or minor.
And pure free will doesn't exist in the sense that we don't create things with our actions just because we want it. Isn't that a prerogative of God(s)? (We're talking religion in here so I'm assuming a teological view of life.)
In my more optimistic moments, I think SPN is attempting to negotiate a middle ground, by positing, as Castiel tells Dean in 4.03, that there are many roads to one place. A person could, conceivably, have an infinite number of options to choose from, although they all lead to an end that only the people Up There can see, if they can see it at all.
YES! And that's why the angels aren't wiping out Dean's memories of Hell, or trying to mess with his ability to express choice, because the fact that he has a destiny to fulfill isn't the same as saying just sit down and accept it. Dean with his choices, and the same with Sam or Castiel even (and his - minor? it was freakin' HUGE! - slip into that gray area of actions) are needed to arrive at the destination the power that be knows - or maybe doesn't know - is at the end of the road.
Me likey!
The Gospels of Winchester OMG!
Also, love, love love the parallel with what fandom does and how fandom acts. So much win!
eta: on the other hadn I fail at html!
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YAY!!! I love your meta, it is hot! :D And I still can't believe I wrote this... usually I don't meta at all, for whatever reason, probably because someone out there usually gets to it before I do, or else I get distracted. But oh my god, this episode brought out the dork in me.
And pure free will doesn't exist in the sense that we don't create things with our actions just because we want it. Isn't that a prerogative of God(s)?
Yes, I believe that's right. So free will is also constrained by ability and human limitation--creation is, after all, an act of divine will that doesn't need prior conditions to be met before the choice can be made to create. Which is how ex nihilo creation works.
And that's why the angels aren't wiping out Dean's memories of Hell, or trying to mess with his ability to express choice, because the fact that he has a destiny to fulfill isn't the same as saying just sit down and accept it.
Exactly! And also, it seems that the nature of prophecy is indeterminate: when Dean breaks into Chuck's house to haul him over to the motel to help save Sam, Chuck tells him that he hadn't written this part. He's completely shocked. So the information Cas gave to Dean, and Dean's choice to act on it (*cough* and I love how Cas seems to know exactly what Dean's going to do), may have fallen outside articulated prophecy. If that's related to Dean's destiny, I don't know, because we don't even know what that is: "the righteous man who begins it is the only one who can end it" doesn't tell you anything about outcome, only that Dean's choices (and in 4.07 Cas tells Dean he does have choices to make) will become more difficult, and maybe more constrained, the closer he gets to his destination.
The Gospels of Winchester OMG!
I am sort of in love with Castiel reading one of the Supernatural books. He admires Chuck's work! And he sees the book and sort of gravitates toward it, and while Dean is standing there hollering and carrying on, Cas just keeps reading XD I LOVE THAT.
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I might have embarrassed myself a little when Dean said Traveling Riverside Blues. Luckily, only the dog saw. ^ ^
As for John's apocalypse, I agree that there's plenty of other eschatological ideas to choose from, but I'm pretty curious to see how they work with revelation, even if it's just "yeah, that guy was nuts, it's actually gonna go down like this" sort of comparison.
An awesome person is sending me all the eps I've missed! So soon I can stop saying "even though I haven't seen...". I'm super psyched now, suddenly, having seen at least three eps that I've really enjoyed.
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I know! I've come to love S4 Dean a whole lot--the way he's been changing, and having to recognize that he can't do it all himself and that there's a lot beyond his power... meep. Yes, I kind of love that a whole lot. (And yeah, I think if anything will do anything to you, hell would be it.)
Luckily, only the dog saw. ^ ^
Yes, it was very lucky my roommate wasn't there, either. Otherwise I think her suspicions as to my sanity would have been confirmed :D
An awesome person is sending me all the eps I've missed!
YAYYYY this is very happy news! I have to say, I really love S4 so far, a lot more than I thought I would when I started catching up on it. But I think Castiel has that effect on some people XD
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some rambling
I'm quite curious about Castiel's comment about the 'Winchester Gospel', because it makes me wonder how much of the future (of Sam and Dean in particular) he already knows about, and if he knows anything about his own role. Chuck obviously stopped putting out the books but he didn't stop writing, and I'm not sure how the situation works. Does Castiel only know of what was in the published books? Hmm!
Also, watching him
fondlehandle that book reminded me of your fic where he's more scholar than warrior. The idea has pretty much cemented itself into my brain, and I like the thought that in some ways he's a frustrated scholar: that he was created to be a warrior but because he does have his own personality, his own interest in books and symbols etc., bleeds through anyway.Re: some rambling
The impression I get is that Castiel doesn't know a whole lot; information in Heaven seems to be given out on a very strictly need-to-know basis. And Chuck is not a very reliable prophet; at least, he admits to Sam that he left out the stuff about the demon blood (does that include Ruby's, uh, infusions?), because he's writing a story, so far as he's concerned, not a religious tract. It seems like the reason behind Sam's powers increasing isn't known to the angels, but I'm not clear on if Chuck knows about it. OH so much confusion :D
that he was created to be a warrior but because he does have his own personality, his own interest in books and symbols etc., bleeds through anyway.
Ohhhhhh, I love this interpretation!! Poor frustrated scholarly Cas!
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YES!
I keep thinking that I should be be all thinky and meta-y and do posts on the episodes, but, seriously, I'm kind of reduced the flailing and squeeing most of the time, and that just ain't dignified ;)
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Pshaw on 'dignified' ;)
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OH, I THINK THAT IS THE REASON!
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For what it's worth, I do like that Castiel emphasized to Dean that he has choices to make, even though there's a lot of "sucks to be you" in Cas's statement. So, whatever destiny is, Dean still lives with the good and bad consequences of his choices, as we all do. (This is, however, not worth much, probably *g*)
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The question I have is if in the SPN 'verse destiny truly is immutable. The Winchesters have a habit of defying what must be and yet seem to wind up doing the inevitable. My own personal beliefs clash with the idea that destiny is immutable--if there are multiple roads, but you are going to wind up where you were supposed to be in the end no matter what--I have trouble accepting that. It seems like the show has created a (deliberate) tension between what its characters believe and how its universe works. Chuck saw something terrible. We have seen evidence that everything Chuck sees comes true. Just as Sam's visions came true, despite Sam and Dean's efforts to avert them--they avert a more terrible end result, but whatever Sam saw, *happens*.
Sam's view seems to be well, if you're stuck with a destiny, you should make the best of it--which is in itself making a choice, but making a choice while accepting the route you're stuck on. Ironic given that Sam is the independent thinker, the one who left home, the one who doesn't want to be defined by the family business. Dean's view is screw that destiny crap, we make our own destiny, yet he's more accepting of the road that someone pointed him down, here's your path, Dean, follow it (but it's his choice to follow it).
My love of the soda machine scene just grows the more I think about it, especially because it was such a brilliant Dean+Castiel moment but simultaneously it was about Dean's fear for and desperate, desperate need to protect Sam--and Castiel knows that.
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Oh definitely yes. We see that again and again--even at the basic level of the victims of the week not believing that ghost stories are real until the monster leaps out at them. One of my most favorite moments in the series is the end of "Houses of the Holy," when Sam reluctantly realizes there are no angels (although, of course, he's wrong *g*) and Dean struggles to explain how he thinks he saw God's will when that would-be rapist was killed. And then Sam after meeting Castiel and Uriel for the first time, crushed that his faith hasn't been validated the way he wants--I sometimes want to smack him, because hello, one of the sad lessons of life in general and SPN in particular is that belief doesn't equate with knowledge of certain facts. Castiel's discovering this, I think... I can't wait to see where he goes.
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