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chasingtides Jan. 8th, 2009 09:40 pm)
chasingtides Jan. 8th, 2009 09:40 pm)So I re-watched Heaven and Hell tonight. (Oh, and my father thinks that Anna is a weak, poorly written, whiny milksop. My mother likes Castiel.)
Hey, Castiel, can you get more passive? Seriously. Even when Alistair is attacking you or Uriel is being a jackass, Castiel is immensely passive.
Actually, Castiel and Sam act pretty similarly in this episode. Until Dean is threatened, neither of them do anything. Uriel and Dean act similarly - they are both verbally violent and take physical action.
What does it mean, other than my amusement at watching Uriel call Dean a monkey and Dean call Uriel junkless? (I do like it when Dean calls Uriel junkless.) I'm not entirely sure.
Sam is, by the presence of his demon blood and his faith, in a gray area. He believes that there are better things in this world (see Houses of the Holy, 2.13). He wants the angels to be the angels of his faith (see It's The Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester, 4.07). The angels, however, don't seem to be terribly pleased with Sam, despite the fact that he actually believes in them. He didn't need to see them or their wings - he knew that they were real, needed them to be real, in a way that was never true for Dean. And yet, he is the so-called Boy King - the poisoned human with the demonic powers. He is torn between using his powers for good and following the apparent will of God. What about the people who will die, he asks himself in 4.07, what about the people he can save?
Castiel, too, is in a strange place. He is angel who loves his Father and his Father's creations (4.07). However, unlike Uriel, his violent and shoot-first-ask-later counterpart, has his doubts. He wants to save, to love, to let live. He is a soldier, but he, as best he can, cares. When he and Uriel encounter Anna in Heaven and Hell (4.10), he tells he that he is sorry. She tells him he is not. In 4.07, he appears to have doubts.
Neither Sam nor Castiel take action in the same way Dean and Uriel do in 4.10. In the first scene, in the encounter in the shack, Dean and Uriel go at it like angry cats, but both Sam and Castiel hang back. Castiel turns away from Uriel and looks down. When Uriel attacks Ruby, Sam - whom we know know was in some kind of sexual relationship with her - hangs back, while Dean goes after Uriel. Dean and Uriel fight physically. Sam turns to Castiel and begs him to stop. Castiel pulls his sleepy-time fingers and removes Sam from the situation in a most nonviolent way.
Again, at the end of the episode, when the angels, demons, and Winchesters meet in the barn, both Sam and Castiel hang back. They don't fight. They are passive. Dean and Uriel both attack and fight like the soldiers that they are.
I am not sure what this means. But I do think that the parallels (Uriel:Dean, Castiel:Sam) are interesting. I think Castiel's character is evolving. I don't think he's as simple as Anna made angels out to be - he is very clearly thinking differently from Uriel in this episode. I don't think he's falling, but he and Uriel are behaving very differently and possibly toward different ends.
Hey, Castiel, can you get more passive? Seriously. Even when Alistair is attacking you or Uriel is being a jackass, Castiel is immensely passive.
Actually, Castiel and Sam act pretty similarly in this episode. Until Dean is threatened, neither of them do anything. Uriel and Dean act similarly - they are both verbally violent and take physical action.
What does it mean, other than my amusement at watching Uriel call Dean a monkey and Dean call Uriel junkless? (I do like it when Dean calls Uriel junkless.) I'm not entirely sure.
Sam is, by the presence of his demon blood and his faith, in a gray area. He believes that there are better things in this world (see Houses of the Holy, 2.13). He wants the angels to be the angels of his faith (see It's The Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester, 4.07). The angels, however, don't seem to be terribly pleased with Sam, despite the fact that he actually believes in them. He didn't need to see them or their wings - he knew that they were real, needed them to be real, in a way that was never true for Dean. And yet, he is the so-called Boy King - the poisoned human with the demonic powers. He is torn between using his powers for good and following the apparent will of God. What about the people who will die, he asks himself in 4.07, what about the people he can save?
Castiel, too, is in a strange place. He is angel who loves his Father and his Father's creations (4.07). However, unlike Uriel, his violent and shoot-first-ask-later counterpart, has his doubts. He wants to save, to love, to let live. He is a soldier, but he, as best he can, cares. When he and Uriel encounter Anna in Heaven and Hell (4.10), he tells he that he is sorry. She tells him he is not. In 4.07, he appears to have doubts.
Neither Sam nor Castiel take action in the same way Dean and Uriel do in 4.10. In the first scene, in the encounter in the shack, Dean and Uriel go at it like angry cats, but both Sam and Castiel hang back. Castiel turns away from Uriel and looks down. When Uriel attacks Ruby, Sam - whom we know know was in some kind of sexual relationship with her - hangs back, while Dean goes after Uriel. Dean and Uriel fight physically. Sam turns to Castiel and begs him to stop. Castiel pulls his sleepy-time fingers and removes Sam from the situation in a most nonviolent way.
Again, at the end of the episode, when the angels, demons, and Winchesters meet in the barn, both Sam and Castiel hang back. They don't fight. They are passive. Dean and Uriel both attack and fight like the soldiers that they are.
I am not sure what this means. But I do think that the parallels (Uriel:Dean, Castiel:Sam) are interesting. I think Castiel's character is evolving. I don't think he's as simple as Anna made angels out to be - he is very clearly thinking differently from Uriel in this episode. I don't think he's falling, but he and Uriel are behaving very differently and possibly toward different ends.
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(And I really hate this episode. I don't think I've disliked an episode so much since Route 666. And I can't figure out if it's because Anna was so poorly written or if the actress was a bad actress, but I spent most of the time going, "Well, kill her already. It's not like she's doing anything and if she's going to get you killed, cut her loose. This is a war!")
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Combine all that fail with the most awkward sex scene ever, some torture porn and the pelvic thrusting while her Grace returned, and I just kind of cringed the whole way through. Though I did like the almost-cute Sam/Ruby interaction, Dean's dream of Uriel, Uriel in general for being such a douche and Alistair's general creep factor! :D