SPN 2x13: Did They Get You to Trade Your Heroes for Ghosts?

[chasingtides]

If you thought angels, grace, the wars of the heavens, and angels putting people in psychiatric hospitals were news in season four, I suggest you rewatch season two.

I got a snow day today (well, actually an ice day), so I ate kippers for lunch and sat down to watch some Supernatural episodes in honor of Kim Manners. I did Scarecrow (1x11) and Mystery Spot (3x11) with joy - they're some of my favorite episodes - and then settled in with some Oreos and tea for Houses of the Holy (2x13). I'd been looking forward to watching it - I need it for character research for my Big Bang.

I had a text window up to take notes for my Big Bang, but it quickly got lost in idea for what is foreshadowed in this episode. Holy foreshadowing, Batman.

The first time I saw this, I wasn't a fan of Sam's faith. Personally, I always struggled with the idea of the Christian god and am firmly in the agnostic range of things. I could relate much better to Dean's need to see-touch-feel. However, here and now, Sam's faith is heartbreaking. At the end of the episode he says,

"I dunno Dean... I-I wanted to believe.. so badly and it's so damn hard to do this, what we do, all alone you know. There's so much evil out in the world I feel like I could drown in it. And when I think about my destiny, when I think about how I could end up... Yeah I know you are [watching out for me] but you're just one person, Dean, and I needed to think that there was something else, too, some higher power, some greater good. And then maybe I... Maybe I could be saved. But, ah, you know, that just clouded my judgement.... We gotta go with what we know, what we can see with our own two eyes."

While I've made no secret of being a fan of Sam-with-psychic-powers (hell, I'm finishing up a fic trilogy where he's Samyaza, the leader of the Grigori), however I think it's Sam's faith - faith that, as far as I can tell, isn't even broken by Uriel - that makes it so heartbreaking. (Also, a Catholic Antichrist [we only see them in Catholic churches and Sam totally beats himself up enough to have Catholic guilt] is just too awesome. Too awesome, I say.) He truly believes. He wants to believe. He wants to be saved.

Ah. That pesky redemption thing. In season four, we're so focused on Dean ("I gripped you tight and raised you from perdition") that it's tempting to forget that up until September, Supernatural has been Sam's story of redemption with Dean as his protector rather than the reverse. Instead of Dean having his regularly scheduled Hell-reveal at the end of the episode, we have Sam's regularly scheduled destiny-angst.

Redemption's a big deal, though. As the dead priest says, "Some people need redemption, don't they, Sam?" And it's true. The priest - however misguided and dead and human - is trying to redeem people. I'd even say that he's a more comforting avenging angel than Uriel is. His people might end up in jail, but they're actually being people saving people. They're saving lives, doing good. It's hard, but I can see it.

Speaking of angels, we've got real angels in this episode. People have talked about the fact that Castiel was mentioned in an incantation in Red Sky at Morning (3x06) and called it foreshadowing. Well, here's another for the ranks: Raphael.

Now, I was raised Catholic. My whole family is Catholic (in various stages of lapsed and devoted, but Catholic all the same - we've even got a Buddhist-Catholic). I've seen the Last Rites performed on relatives. I've got a Last Rites crucifix in my bedroom (it opens up and you've got holy oil, candles, and a script) that I inherited from my grandmother. (Last Rites are also known as the much friendlier Anointing of the Sick to ensure that everyone gets them.) The Anointing of the Sick is important in Catholicism - one of the Seven Sacraments. I studied them in my Catholic schooling. The words for the Anointing of the Sick are pretty simple: "Through this holy unction may the Lord pardon thee whatever sins or faults thou hast committed (Catholic Encyclopedia)." You can have mild variants, of course, depending on region, but that's pretty much it. You're anointed with oils and blessed. If it's Last Rites and you're dying, they can add "May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up," (hence Last Rites).

However, Father Reynolds is either an idiot (quite possible) or telling us something that is to come. Father Gregory is not given to the Lord. I don't think he's anointed, either, but I don't know that you can anoint a ghost. Father Reynolds, in blessing Father Gregory, says,

"Oh holy hosts above, I call upon thee as a servant of Christ, to sanctify our actions this day in fulfillment of the will of God... I call upon the Archangel Raphael, master of the air, to make open the way. Let the fire of the holy spirit descend that this being might be awakened to the world beyond."

Uh.

Okay. Well, that's interesting. It's not Catholic or Last Rites, but it's interesting. If I had to call it something I have vague experience with I'd say it came somewhere out of ceremonial magic. That whole, Raphael, master of the air thing - that's ceremonial magic. As far as Catholics care, Raphael shows up in Tobit and maybe in John. Maybe. Of course, he's an archangel (along with Gabriel and Michael) for Roman Catholics (some Catholics believe in Uriel, however Pope St Zachary culled him over a millennium ago), but he's got nothing to do with the air.

This leads me to believe that he's there for a reason. It's easy enough to make up what the Last Rites are supposed to be (they could have just cut it off before the Raphael if they didn't feel like using Wikipedia). But this Raphael bit. That feels like it should be something.

I suppose it could be that they decided Uriel - an avenging angel over Raphael, a nominally healing angel - is more in keeping with season four and its boatload of angst. But I really want it to be another angel. (Maybe Anna? I don't know. I didn't like her and want her to be Ariel, but Raphael's cool, too.)

This episode is mostly a stark reminder that while Dean is pulled from Hell and theoretically saved, they both need saving this season. I admit that I feel more for Dean, who, between his anger at the child molester and violence against the would-be rapist, redeemed my love of him in Houses of the Holy, this season, since he was emotionally, physically, and spiritually broken. He is a man who believes in what he can see-touch-feel - and he's lived through Hell and lived through breaking other damned souls. He hasn't touched redemption.

Sam might still fall, though. It's clear that he's still human - Uriel wants to smash him, but I think Uriel wants to smash most humans. Perhaps what he does with Ruby will be his fall. I'm tempted to think that there's a reason he believes - faith is redemption, after all - that there's a reason he cared about the portrait of Michael.

However their redemption comes (or fails), though, I don't think it'll be through the angels.

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[tahirire.livejournal.com]

*checks in to psych ward*