#also in 15x04 chuck spikes the lense twice before he gets his inspiration

[wigglebox]

i surface from time to time waving the chuck won theory flag and i’m back again babeyyyyy

*the following is an utter denial of that heaven endgame and that cas is there so if you don’t agree with that then this post may not be for you! 

Let’s talk about this shot. 

This shot... makes me feral. Especially knowing 15x04 was the first episode they shot for the season. 

This shot is why I just cannot accept the fact that they are actually in Heaven, nor that Cas is there. 

Let’s start here. The fireplace mantle.

This mantle is like an adult toy shelf. We’ve already been in Becky’s space where she’s creating things that are like “toys”. They’re models, sets, other merch items. But here, it’s all decoration. You have funko pop stuff action figures — toys. It’s all toys up there. It’s a toy shelf. 

While they’re talking about Chuck getting his motivation and inspiration back, he takes the little Sam one down, fiddles with it, and puts it back in the opposite direction. 

There is also some Cas ones up there.

It’s a toy shelf. 

A lot of folks will say that the presence of Cas at that Road House means he’s in Heaven, but in my one on one with Misha he said that Jimmy was supposed to be dressed as Cas. 

To me, this plays into the theory that Chuck just cannot control Cas whatsoever and it’s only gotten worse as time goes on. He can’t even create a fake Cas. The only way to do so is to pull over his vessel who’s in Heaven and dress him like Cas. The last time we saw Jimmy he was not wearing the coat and tie. So putting him in this outfit would have really signaled to us that something is wrong. 

More on that in a bit. Stick a pin in that. It’s a big reason why I don’t believe Cas is with Dean by the end, nor do I want him to be. 

But going back to the toy shelf — look at this at the end. 

I always forget her family photo is on this toy shelf. 

In talking with friends about the Chuck Won theory, I use the metaphor of Chuck putting Dean and Sam up on the ‘toy shelf’ bc he’s done playing with them. Much like this toy shelf here. 

But that does not mean they’re dead. And this family portrait up there is why. 

Chuck by the end of the episode Thanos’ed Becky’s family and then her. But before he dusts her, they have this exchange:

BECKY: No! The kids.

CHUCK: Oh, don’t worry. They’re not dead. They’re just away.

Sam and Dean aren’t dead, they’re just away. They’re put back up on the shelf. Chuck is done with them.

The shelf itself? The Empty. 

My poor friends have had to listen to me ramble and rant about this theory that Chuck and The Empty were working together, and that’s how Chuck managed to get the plot going in his favor. 

This right here is why I think that. 

The Chess Board TM 

Right now the game is not in play. Everyone is set at their starting positions, where they know to be. The position that esablishes their role. Chuck at this point in the narrative doesn’t know where to go or how to start in that direction, so the game is not yet in motion. 

But there’s a chessboard regardless right in the foreground of the shot [thanks jackles] and that’s another metaphor I keep mumbling about to my poor friends. 

If the toy shelf is The Empty, then the chess board is Chuck’s plan; his game. 

In constantly thinking about the Chuck Won theory, I think about who’s left on the field — and no one is. 

Chuck managed to get rid of every threat against him by the end of the show. And, if he’s in cahoots with The Empty, then he knows about Cas’ deal. He knows he can’t tell Cas what to do, but he can put Cas in a situation that’d force him to act. 

So now we got:

Billie — who already didn’t like the brothers, Dean in particular all that much, antagonized against Dean after Dean hits her with the thingy thing she has idk I can’t spell it. Chuck starts dusting people, Dean thinks it’s her. They have a forced hostile relationship, thus putting Dean in a lot of danger. Chuck knows the only way to contain her is to get the Empty down there to get her but there’s no way to do that — unless —

Cas — Putting Dean in a situation where his life is in danger like that would automatically cause Cas to respond. Chuck may not be able to control him but ‘too much heart’ was always Cas’ problem, and while it’s a strength it’s also a weakness that can be exploited at times. So, put Dean in a position where he’s about to die, Cas is going to call The Empty down to get Billie and sacrifice himself in order to save Dean. 

So now Chuck got rid of two threats and they’re gonna be kept there by The Empty who’s working with him. 

Jack — The Empty, working with Chuck, is leading Billie on a little bit with this plan that Jack can be Thee Solution TM but here’s how to do it. However, the plan wasn’t actually to defeat Chuck, it was to prime a vessel for him. If you can’t beat Jack, join him — by... possessing him. In my opinion, this season was about preparing Jack to be a vessel, not to defeat Chuck. Why I think this is because Jack had a monolouge at the end of 1519, but the ‘villain’ in 15x20, Jenny, had 8 words. Jack to Chuck is the villain. But also, ironically, Chuck is the villain to OUR protagonists, and Chuck also knows that. So Jack-Chuck got the monologue, and said ‘Chuck [myself] wrote himself into the narrative, that was his mistake.’ So essentially, Chuck nabbed himself a new ride and is off to the races. 

Amara — Chuck appealed to her sense of love for humanity and this idea of love as a weakness in general and basically silver tongued his way into getting her to join up with him. How on earth did the boys defeat Chuck when he’s literally at full power now? But anyways. 

Michael — I don’t think Michael was AS big of a threat but likely Chuck knew that Michael could be talked into doing the right thing by Adam. But literally just in case as an insurance policy, he feeds Michael and pulls down Lucifer to feed to Jack so Jack can get strengthened up. Adam, his moral compass, is also gone, making it easier. 

Dean, Sam — Just... put them back on the toy shelf. They believe they defeated the bad guy, and just go back to life as normal. Almost way too normal. Like a deep regression. Get Dean out of the way first bc his death was always going to be tragic bc Chuck likes that shit. Sam can live his little life or whatever and then he can bite the big one and go join Dean and they have no idea that they aren’t, actually, in Heaven or reality at all. 

So that’s the chessboard cleared, and Chuck’s calling Check Mate. 

*another side tangent — a lot of folks write off 15x01 to 15x03 but if you take into consideration what was going on, in a broad sense, you get a bunch of souls, trapped in a bubble, trying to escape. And wouldn’t that just be fitting for a continuation? 

Some other things I wanted to note:

I don’t believe Cas is in heaven. For one thing, narrative wise, makes no sense. There’s no Empty rescue, there’s no reason to believe he got out on his own. The Empty CAN hold humans, they just don’t default to The Empty. But Billie threatened to throw them in there so — The Empty can hold humans so even Cas’ fading grace wouldn’t have had an impact. In all the times Cas has died we have had to wait a very long time to see him again. There’s just one time, the season 5 finale, where we didn’t. Otherwise: Season 4-5 hiatus, Season 7, Season 7-8 hiatus, season 12-13 hiatus and subsequent episodes etc etc. To me, bringing Cas back for 15x20 kind of dulls the impact of 1518 which was just one episode prior. There’s just 15x19 between them [and no even if there was a 22-23 episode season it’s still not enough time]. There’s no effort made to get him. Plot beat wise, it makes literally no sense for him to just magically appear like haha hey waddup it’s ya boi skinny penis 

But also, going along with the Chuck Won theory — Bobby had said that ‘Cas helped’ Jack fix up Heaven. How... in the fuck... did Jack get Cas out of The Empty? How. The Empty hates HATES both of them. ABSOLUTELY Hates them. 

Also, Jack said basically he was going to be hands off, and I’d imagine that includes plucking people down from The Empty. 

However, you know who does pluck people out of The Empty? Chuck. Though no, I don’t think Chuck took Cas out of The Empty either. 

But also, The Empty is loud! Everything is awake! We have no reason to believe it’s not because we weren’t given evidence that anything happened up there. Where we left off was: Cas and Billie taken ALIVE to The Empty which is awake and loud now. Nothing else. 

And Jack MADE it loud. The Empty hates Jack, The Empty hates that Cas keeps getting away — they’re not going to just walk in and walk out. 

So that made no sense to me. 

But also on another note: In 15x02 they managed to sneak in that VERY pointed and thematic line of “You asked what about this is real? We are” from Cas. 

Cas is the ONLY one who has escaped the narrative. It’s why Chuck hates him so much. Cas is the beacon of ‘real’. He’s the truth, he’s the antithesis of Chuck. He’s the Free Will guy and Chuck is the Puppet Strings Guy. 

The reason why, if the Chuck Won theory is correct, I don’t want Cas in “Heaven” is because I don’t want Dean to ever EVER EVER question if Cas is real or not. I don’t want him, if Cas is rescued and they all live happily ever after, to constantly be worried at night that he’s still locked up somewhere and whatever is happening isn’t actually happening. 

Cas has to remain this beacon of truth. Chuck can’t recreate him or make an imitation. Cas has to be able to exist as someone Dean can look at and go ‘Real’. So if Chuck Won is correct, and they’re really not in heaven and it’s all a mirage to placate the boys, then I don’t want Cas there. 

I don’t want Cas, The Truth, Reality, to ever be anything other than that. 

#other things to note: El Sol beer and Dean commenting on it for like the first time?? i think ever??? #The concert was for us not for dean #dean doesn't give any more of a shit about kansas than he does any other 70s band #that's not his favorite band #also in 15x04 chuck spikes the lense twice before he gets his inspiration #anyway this has been brought to you by vyvanse and caffiene #don't do drugs kiddos yayyyy #long post #spn meta #spn spec #all of this to say is that i think in the prequel dean is in this 'heaven' before sam gets there and is pulling on the thread #and wouldn't it just be great that leading into the continuation we get the shot from the bridge but as soon as the cameras are 'off' the #colors go back to gray and blue and dean's like we got work to do #bc he figured it all out WOO #okay i have to go burn this energy off #also like — i know people like the cas is in heaven thing and like the heaven thing #and this isn't to diminish that but to just kind put my thots on paper #or a blog post lol #i know it's sad to think that cas an dean may be apart. but i think maybe bc i'm such a continuation truther #i don't think it'd be like that forever anyway #idk #15x20 felt like dark night of the soul #and not a final thing