#as Cain. and then Abel who ACTUALLY loved him unconditionally as a true brother and what did he do?

[sarah-dipitous]

Hellsite Nostalgia Tour 2023 Day 197

First Born

“First Born”

Plot Description: hoping to kill mutual enemy Abaddon, Dean and Crowley search for the “First Blade” and are stunned to find out its owner is Cain, the first son.

Would I Survive the First Five Minutes??: yeah, I’m good. I mean, if I HAD the First Blade and Cain came aknockin for it, I’d probably just give it to him. I don’t wanna die

(I remember two things from this part of spn: 1) Dean gets a fun new mark and 2) Cain is played by Timothy Omundson, who to ME is King Richard from Galavant)

I guess if you HAVE to portray confederate soldiers (and honestly, you almost never have to, unless you are doing something and it’s ABOUT the civil war), it MIGHT be best to make them demons. Though then you’re taking away their agency which is a DIFFERENT kind of ick. But at least they’re demons to be killed off and not the romantic partner of a beloved side character

I can’t believe Crowley had a spy demon called Smitty…

The Dean and Crowley buddy comedy is perfection. I love Dean begrudgingly taking out John’s journal and Crowley asking ALL of the questions about it. Giving me season four or five vibes

Oh…Cas is losing his taste for food now that he’s an angel again. I’m sad for him

“Cas, you’re a terrible liar” “That’s not true. I once deceived and betrayed both you and your brother” Cassssssss, that’s not something to boast about

So did Gadreel leave a little piece of him in Sam??? Oh…Sam’s got a little Grace in him.

Sam, you HAVE to remember that Cas does not have the strongest grasp on idioms. You can’t say you have a guinea pig and not expect him to believe you have a LITERAL guinea pig and not just a you to experiment on

I like this semi-retired hunter(?). She’s got all the precautions up and tests that Dean isn’t possessed, but she’s not IN the game in the game anymore.

Crowley, you and Dean are not besties but I’m so happy you’re trying

I’m not saying that John wasn’t a man with “needs,” but…when you’re dragging your kids (who you are also neglecting more than half the time) all across the country, I don’t know that you get to do weekend trysts with a woman you killed a demon with.

Did you have to SHOOT the devil’s trap to break it?? Couldn’t you have just scuffed it like EVERYONE ELSE ON THIS SHOW??

Don’t tell me Cain still lives at the house from the first five minutes

Crowley is absolutely TERRIFIED of Cain. And I can see why. He formed AND killed the Knights of Hell?!

Sam, you have not spent enough time around Cas. You need to. Because you also need to stop making all these little quips that are just going to keep you two going around in exceptionally pointless circles

Not Sam trying to sacrifice himself again (but what else is new, really?)

Yeah, maybe you SHOULDN’T have gone back

Man, of course they killed the hunter…

I love that the Father of Murder is now an introvert who just wants to tend to his bees and be left alone

Cain just watching Dean fight these demons like I watch a show I’ve seen a million times

Crowley, no one was around to hear your quip

I do like the relationship between Cas and Sam…it’s soft and supportive now

What a potentially interesting twist on the Cain and Abel story…here, Abel wasn’t talking to god, he was talking to Lucifer and Cain made a deal to ensure Abel went to heaven and he went to hell (not sure I 100% believe it but…)

Oh that’s actually really tragic. Cain fell in love with a woman who loved him unconditionally. She simply asked him to stop killing and he did. Then Abaddon possessed her one night, nearly killed her in front of Cain, but ended up tricking him into killing his own wife.

The Winchester boys, always taking really drastic and dangerous solutions

A Sam and Cas hug where Sam has to tell Castiel that this is the part where you hug back

OMG! Crowley gets a “end of the car trip” talk over the hood of the impala!! And you said he was the furthest thing from family, Dean…….

You’re right Crowley, it IS always something with those boys

#hellsite nostalgia tour 2023

[mittensmorgul]

9.11, First Born.

Aah, Cain. And Dean doing whatever it takes to spare everyone else from having to do any of the Terrible Things that need to be done-- killing Abaddon, getting revenge on Gadreel, maybe even eventually being able to do something to help Cas get revenge for what Metatron did to him... who even knows, but right now to Dean, everything is his fault and he's therefore open to manipulation by Crowley...

And all of this is very much how Dean felt about having said yes to Michael in s14, but times a thousand.

As we will learn in 9.23, Crowley knew all along what the Mark of Cain would eventually do to him, and he'd just been playing nice and biding his time... waiting for Dean to be ready to sit at his right hand as his own personal Knight/Hellhound... but that's all part of Crowley's long game... And his con even starts showing itself in this episode:

CAIN You have quite a reputation, Dean. I see the part about you being brave rings true DEAN Well, what can I say? I'm an all-in kind of guy. Abaddon is the last Knight of Hell, and if you're out of the game, what the hell do you care if she dies? CAIN If your friend here could talk, he would tell you that I trained the Knights of Hell. I built that entire demonic order with my own hands -- Abaddon included. DEAN [turns indignantly on CROWLEY] Well, that is information I could have used five minutes ago! [CROWLEY gasps in explanation, still unable to talk]

And then in addition to Crowley's con, we have Cain's test of Dean, with the three demons I mentioned back in 9.02.

DEAN [Exhausted] What was that? Some kind of a test? CAIN [sipping his beer] I felt connected to you right from the beginning. Kindred spirits, if you will. You and I are very much alike. DEAN Right. Yeah, except I didn't kill my brother. CAIN You saved yours. Why? DEAN Because you never give up on family -- ever. CAIN Where's your brother now, then? DEAN I don't know what kind of game you're playing here, and I don't really care. Just give me the damn blade.

And right from the start, they've set themselves up as a sort of inverse mirror of one another. Yes, Cain might find them "kindred spirits," but in the way that "good twin vs evil twin" are kindred spirits. Except Dean realized what made Cain quit and slaughter his Knights... Love for Colette. And for a guy who (again in 9.02) insists he isn't about the love... and love, Dean really does get it.

And here we have the key to so much of the Sam and Dean dynamics over the rest of the series:

CROWLEY It's the bloody mark of Cain. CAIN From Lucifer himself. The mark and the blade work together. Without the mark, the blade is useless. It's just an old bone. CROWLEY A bone? DEAN The jawbone of an animal. The jawbone you used to kill Abel because he was God's favorite. CAIN Abel wasn't talking to God. He was talking to Lucifer. Lucifer was gonna make my brother into his pet. I couldn't bear to watch him be corrupted, so I offered a deal -- Abel's soul in heaven for my soul in hell. Lucifer accepted... As long as I was the one who sent Abel to heaven. So, I killed him. Became a soldier of Hell -- a knight. DEAN And Lucifer ordered you to make more. CAIN  My knights and I, we did horrible things -- for centuries. Bringers of chaos and darkness. DEAN Then you met Colette. CAIN She knew who I was... and what I was. She loved me unconditionally. She forgave me. She only asked for one thing. CROWLEY To stop.

Cain had been manipulated into taking the Mark in order to save his brother who had been manipulated by Lucifer into believing he was talking to God (hello, s11! which itself will expand this manipulation right out to Chuck and Amara's initial deception, and now even beyond that, to Chuck's inability to let go of his creation and just let it be). And Cain... he knew he had to quit again, and break his promise to Colette.

CAIN I can give you the mark, Dean, if it's what you truly want. DEAN What are you talking about? CAIN The mark can be transferred to someone who's worthy. DEAN You mean a killer like you? CAIN Yes. DEAN Can I use it to kill that bitch? CAIN Yes. But you have to know with the mark comes a great burden. Some would call it a great cost. DEAN Yeah, well, spare me the warning label. You had me at "kill the bitch". CAIN Good luck, Dean. You're gonna to need it.

because Crowley summed up Dean's problem now, which goes far beyond not reading the warning label before taking the Mark:

CROWLEY Your problem, mate, is that nobody hates you more than you do. Believe me, I've tried.

But Dean has finally figured out that this was what Crowley had wanted all along, that Crowley was using him to get to Cain and the First Blade. Manipulation, ahoy, because that was only step one, and there's far worst to come.

And then we have the other half of the story, of Cas giving Sam some food for thought. Having just sacrificed his own humanity for the cause, he's lamenting the loss of some of his favorite parts of having been human, like enjoying foods he liked that now taste disgusting to him. He's learned a heck of a lot about human nature and emotions firsthand now, and he does his best to convince Sam he's worth saving:

Castiel: Sam, when I was human, I died, and that showed me that life is precious, and it must be protected at all costs, even a life as... as pig-headed as a Winchester's. Sam: My life's not worth any more than anyone else's -- not yours or Dean's...or Kevin's. Please. Please, help me do one thing right. Keep going.

Because as much as Sam is blaming Dean for everything that's happened, he's still blaming himself. Dean lied to him, but Sam has also lied to Dean. Dean was involved in Gadreel possessing him, but deep down, Sam actually did say yes all by his lonesome, manipulated or not. And he did lie and make bad choices before, and yet Dean had still chosen to trust him, over and over again. Dean only felt betrayed by that lack of trust in return, just as Sam feels now. Like Sam said in 14.18 about Jack:

Sam: Dean, it wasn't just Cas. It wasn't. We knew Jack was dangerous. We always knew. Long before he killed Michael. You more than anyone. I mean, from the very beginning, you knew. But, you know, we fell for him 'cause he had a good heart and a good soul. Then he didn't. And that's on me, too, by the way. I mean, I'm the one that made the call to bring him back. He didn't ask for that. I decided for him. And you warned me.

This STRONGLY reminded me of the speech Cas gave to Sam in 9.11, if not in specific content, in the general theme:

Castiel: The only person who has screwed things up more consistently than you...is me. And now I know what that guilt feels like. And I know what it... I know what it means to feel sorry, Sam. I am sorry. Sam: I know. Castiel: You know, old me -- I would've have just kept going. I would've jammed that needle in deeper until you died because the ends always justified the means. But what I went though -- Well, that PB and J taught me that angels can change, so...who knows? Maybe Winchesters can, too.

So even five years later, this is the progression for all of them.

#spn 9.11 #s14 hellatus rewatch #it's spirals all the way down #here have my belated thoughts on the whole love... and love #the scheherazade of supernatural #spiders georg of the tnt loop #you learned it from the goats