Why? What is Robbie doing here?

Is it just simply a reference to the imprisoned feminine?

Piper in OITNB was imprisoned after she was enticed into crime because of being what she thought her lover wanted her to be. She then felt betrayed by her lover into an unjust imprisonment. The first season was all about her journey questioning who she thought she was, and perhaps concluding she wasn’t quite so innocent as she thought she was.

Or is he bringing Sam and the “imprisoned feminine” into association?

See butterflydm’s meta on the imprisoned feminine

So many themes of being hungry, worn out, and longing for more for Sam in this episode. Of experiencing intimacy, and feeling release and be succored by the encounter. But ultimately he wanted more than his partner wanted to give.

Why are there so many themes of perspective and POV these recent seasons? Why are we being drawn into feeling sympathy for The Darkness?

I keep thinking of Sam’s line about saving all of the people, even the ones who were killing because there was something wrong with them. This episode, too, was about saving the “monsters,” redeeming them and giving them peace.

Sleepsintheimpala points out that the need to break the chains that bind us, both literal and metaphorical, is an important theme this season.

Larinah pointed out that Sam was pictured flirting with yet another blonde woman at a cash register with key chains and poker chips All alluding to chains and keys and taking a gamble.

And so I wonder if we’re headed down a journey of the Winchesters trying to do things the old way. Fight the Big Bad of the season, but, ultimately, they learn to see things from The Darkness’ perspective.

And that the only solution isn’t about overpowering and imprisoning The Darkness, but the key to their problem is to take a risk, and save The Darkness, too.

We’re all headed for the exits

Exits signs as a motif hinting at impending death have reappeared in Season 11.

Season 2: The first appeared hinting that Dean was on his way out.

Season 10: When Dean had exited life as he knew it.

Lurking behind Sam when he was infected by the Darkness in Season 11′s open.

And now here there are again in The Bad Seed, lurking behind a demon.

And an angel, as well as white flowers – another harbinger of Death in the Supernatural universe.

Both on the menu in restaurants. Because Amara is Hungry, with a capital “H,” and she is ready to eat.

Voices and visions

larinah:

I felt like the beginning scenes in the bunker in “The Bad Seed” were an exercise in almost working as a team again. Sam, Dean, and Cas are talking together trying to puzzle out what to do next, but there’s one thing Sam and Dean skirt around and don’t quite get to. Not really out of flat out deception, but more from missing each other’s clues.

We start with Dean remembering his visions of the dark cloud, to the point where Sam has to say his name a couple of times. But he says he’s fine, and they drop it.

Then they’re talking about an absent God and Sam says, “It’s possible he’s still around, closer than you might think.” Dean replies, “What makes you say that?” but Cas immediately speaks before Sam answers.

Then we get Cas having his spell problem. They put him back in the chair and Dean has his hand on Cas until Cas says that, “It’s difficult with these voices.”

At which point Dean immediately does this:

And Sam says, “Are there voices?” and looks like this:

It seems to me that both Sam and Dean reacted a little strongly to what Cas said. Like they were just about to say, “Hey, I’ve had some voices/visions going on, too…maybe we should compare notes on this.”

But then Cas says it’s just angel radio and they relax.

As far as we know, Sam knows that Dean had a vision and that she spoke to Dean but Sam doesn’t know about the bond she talked about (and possibly any urges to protect the baby that Dean might only vaguely be aware of himself). And as far as we know, Dean doesn’t know anything about the weird vision Sam had at the hospital (or even that Sam was ever infected with the black vein stuff).

Communication among Team Free Will has gotten better, but it’s still not quite where it needs to be to really hash out all the problems to be faced.

The Chains and Ties that Bind Us, or How 11.02 Introduces S11′s Seasonal Arc

sleepsintheimpala:

note: a significant part of this meta is actually spec.

In Out of the Darkness, Into the Fire, Sam made a passionate speech about the need for both Winchesters to change. As has been the topic of fandom meta almost from the moment Carver took over the reigns and deliberately started setting it up, the brothers’ bond as it currently exists will need to be broken and cleansed into a healthier one. Since then the bonds with Crowley and Castiel have been explored as extensively, particularly their links with humanity, for both mainly in the form of Dean. There too, the ties that bound them were unhealthily balanced and in dire need of a redefinition. And by the looks of it, season 11 might finally do this. Breaking the bonds that exist, bonds that have become chains tying people down, looks to be season 11′s emotional and plot arc.

What stood out more than anything for me visually was the sheer number of times we saw people literally bound in chains, and figuratively bound to the Darkness. And while certainly part of this meta should be considered spec, there is little doubt in my mind why we were presented with this sheer volume of chain symbolism representing the unhealthy bonds between characters, and how these chains need to be broken if, like Sam said in the previous episode, they truly want to change.

Firstly, there is Sam, who is most heavily associated with chains this episode. Form and Void begins with him desperately searching for a means to bind one possessed by the Darkness yet bonded to him through what courses through his veins. Symbolically, it isn’t a big leap to see this as a parallel to his and Dean’s predicament.

It was Sam who spent the entirety of last season desperately trying to hold on to his brother. So, when we track through the store with Sam now, we see his hands first clutch wires that he can cut. From bonds that can be broken to those less easily severed but simultaneously are associated with captivity. He discards the first option for heavy duty chains to tie up a rabid whose words are eerily reminiscent of Dean’s in Brother’s Keeper:

Keep reading

Older than Souls

mittensmorgul:

Well, I started adding a comment on to THIS POST, but I realized I was writing a novel that was only peripherally related to it… So I decided to start a new post rather than totally corrupt that other one. Pffft.

Anyway, this sort of went off on a really broad tangent, so I’m putting it under a cut because nobody probably wants to read my thinky thoughts about the origins of all the energy in the universe, and what happens to monster souls when they die in Purgatory, and God as Scarface. Okay. I should call this my Grand Unification Theory of Supernatural. It’s about 90% crap, but I like it anyway.

Keep reading

I’m of the same mind. 🙂

The River Shall End At Its Source: Amara and Mary, The Story Became the Story

ibelieveinthelittletreetopper:

empressofhellinhighheels:

GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS

Ooooo.

I mean, I’m not surprised. Really liked her.

Egggggggsellent! *steeples fingers*

Source: zmey-ette

The River Shall End At Its Source: Amara and Mary, The Story Became the Story

Amara:

“Strong, attractive, stylish, and multicultural this name is also the Esperanto form of Mary… But Amara is also a Sanskrit name meaning immortal and a Mongolian name meaning peaceful, and is the Italian word for bitter (same root as Maryam and Miriam) occasionally used as a first name in the Latin countries.”

I’ve said elsewhere that flowers are used in Supernatural as a means of hinting at secrets, at things that are yet to be revealed. Early in the story of Supernatural, flowers were strongly associated with Mary. She often wore pink or white or blue.

Over the first few seasons the secrets of just how Mary was the source of the Winchester family’s narrative was revealed. She was revered mother, lost wife, hunter, and daughter. She was both loved partner and abandoned wife. She was the first to set off the chain of Winchester sacrificial deals. She was trained to be a hunter but desired only a safe and normal life. The audience’s and her sons’ perception of her changed over time as her story was revealed.

And here we have Amara, drawn into clear parallel with Mary by both her name and the visual motifs surrounding her.

Amara, too, is a woman of mystery and her story is a matter of perception, reinforced by both her forceful rejection of Death’s point of view and the distinctly purple tint (Purple is perception).

Here, now we have Amara, whose name has many meanings. She is immortal. She is peaceful. She is bitter. And she is Mary.

What is the aim of drawing these parallels between Amara and Mary, then?

Throughout season 9 and 10, we saw frequent visual motifs and narrative references to journeys. We had boats, airplanes, and cars, as well as stars and maps by which to guide them.

Now, however, we seem to have come to a “stop.” The end of the road.

When asked how to get rid of The Mark, the scribe of God said, “The river shall end at its source.” Have we reached the source? The end of the journey?

Mary was the “source” of the Winchester pain and dysfunctional patterns. Is the Darkness then the “source?” Did all things begin with her? And to end we have to return to her?

Why do the people the Darkness touches have an expiry date? Within hours, they die. If they are driven to “infect” others, why then do they die within hours.

I have to wonder if they are being called “home.” The darkness is calling what is hers home to her? She existed before God and Death. God said let there be Light, and the Darkness was banished.

Is the Darkness the source of humanity’s souls? Did God plunder her power and use it to create humanity, and then put her behind a lock that engenders bitterness at unfairness of your treatment and the belief that you have the right to claim others’ lives? A lock that is fed by the splitting of another’s soul from their body?

If so, then I predict that the story of the Darkness, her sacrifice, and her bond with Dean will parallel Sam and Dean’s desire to sacrifice everything to save the other. At some point, because of his bond with the Darkness, will have to directly choose between Amara and Sam. At some point, Sam’s tendency to sacrifice himself will be brought into parallel with the Darkness’ sacrifice to preserve humanity. And so, I predict that story of the Darkness will be the vehicle by which the Winchesters examine their dysfunctional patterns that have their source in Mary.

Pie is love.

No Exit:

Exit signs have been used to hint at a character’s death before. I first noticed them in Season 2, In My Time of Dying, hinting at the fact that Dean was between worlds. His death loomed behind him. So did it appear behind Dean off and on early in Season 10, after his death and resurrection.

Now, here they are again, looming behind Sam presaging his sacrifice and imminent death in Season 11.1.