Bringing Back God...or Chuck

In a recent article, Rob Benedict talked about the difficulty of bringing his character back. "It’s so self-conscious…" he says. "It’s kind of hard to just have him walk through the door and be like ‘Hey, how’s it going'?"

I don't think it's hard at all! You just have to love Chuck and Rob Benedict enough to be motivated to find the solution. :)

I think Chuck was not meant to be God from the beginning of his story thread. I just can't buy that God would sit alone in a ratty bathrobe and dial up porn while drinking bad whiskey. Yes, he took on a role to hide his true identity from the boys, but when they weren't around, who was he playing for?

Therefore, I think Kripke came up with that very fitting closure to his tenure as showrunner well into the season. It made "early Chuck as God" a little unbelievable, but now it makes bringing Chuck back super easy.

I don't think they have to bring Chuck back as God, or bring the "real" God onto the show at all. So far, God's presence—except for that one episode in the final moments of the Big Battle—has been off screen. He's done incredible things, like bringing Cas back (twice, really, and geez, this is how Cas repays him?!), but all from afar. Gentle nudging of events, not direct interference. Cas isn't the first being to declare himself lord and master, so God really doesn't have to change his behavior. If he wasn't going to jump in to prevent the apocalypse, he's not likely to show up for this poser.

Sam and Dean don't know that Chuck was "God." As far as we've seen, they haven't tried to find or contact him since Sam went into the pit. They can do a quick explainer, of course. Dean saying, "Dude, I tried to call you like fifty times." Or they can just admit to having been so wrapped up in their own issues they didn't think about him.

But what do Sam and Dean think happened to Chuck? (Rhetorical question.) If God only took Chuck's role for a short time, where did Chuck go during that? Maybe he was sleeping some real, awesome, dreamless sleep while God took over his prophet duties. Maybe, when he woke up, he realized he could have his life back. Or actually have a life. He wrote a new book, all his own ideas, and sold it and became a bestseller. In the meantime, he worked in a toilet paper factory (because it takes a long time to get from Page One to NY Times Bestseller list).

Okay, that established, what kind of storyline could draw Chuck back to the screen for us? Throw out some ideas!

It's Not Depression, It's The Ordeal

I see a lot of comments about the last few episodes that have some form of "that's so depressing!" in them. They're not necessarily complaints, some are witty, most are wailing and lamenting Dean's pain, but they all talk about how heavy the despair of our show is.

Supernatural is currently in stage 8 of the hero's journey as analyzed by Joseph Campbell and applied to modern storytelling by Christopher Vogler: The Ordeal. This is when all seems lost, when the hero confronts death, his greatest fear, or his most difficult choices. Dean, of course, is facing all three.

Sera Gamble has said Dean will hit rock bottom, and judging by the preview for tomorrow's episode, this is it. This is the moment in the fight scene where the hero is getting pummeled and suddenly finds the strength to turn the tide and fight back. But first, he has to give in to the pressure, the weight, he has to see what it's like to give up.

A number of things combined to bring Dean to this point, and I don't think he would have arrived here if any of them had been missing. First, Bobby seemed to give up. He didn't say the words, but it was clear that killing his wife again had at least temporarily broken his spirit, what little was left after he wound up in the wheelchair.

Then they die and go to heaven, and it's pile-on time. Dean confronts his losses* (Mary, Ash, Pamela, Jo and Ellen [obviously, the latter two not literally]) and gets the hard sell from Pamela about how heaven isn't so bad for those who die, and why not just let it happen**? At the same time, Sam's heaven sticks knife after knife into Dean's heart*** and God is just another deadbeat dad****.

Dean lost a lot all at once. By the time they got to Blue Earth, Minnesota, he'd been chewing on what he had left for a while. Beset by demons, facing one of Hell's horrors, seeing what it can do and knowing that the longer he and Sam hold out without destroying Lucifer, the worse things will get, it makes sense that he'd decide to end it the other way. The logic is there. If it's inevitable, if people can suffer for years this way and they can't ever win, why not speed it up?

Dean needs something to hold on to. Some reason to dig in his heels and resist. Could it be Lisa and Ben? Someone asked why it was Lisa and not Cassie. That's a good question, because he and Cassie had a lot more history than he and Lisa did. But his feelings for Cassie were young and immature. What he had with Lisa (not the bendy weekend, afterward) was all potential, but it was mature. It was who Dean is today, how he's been shaped over the last four years, what he wants for his future and believes he can't have. He and Lisa may or may not be meant for each other, but that's not really the point. Potential is the point.

Now, using them in a bargain isn't smart. Dean will be giving the enemy more ammunition. He can hold out when Bobby's paralyzed and Sam's got no lungs because they signed up for this gig, but Lisa and Ben are innocents. I doubt Dean's thinking of that—he's only thinking that he's got something the angels want, and if they want it, he wants something in return. Somewhere along the line, he'd better realize he can't trust any kind of bargain the angels agree to.

*Interesting that Dean sees Mary, at a time when John was not around, but never sees or considers that he will see John. I'm sure part of this is JDM's availability (or their desire to save him for the end, maybe? please?), but the writing is solid—Dean doesn't have many happy memories of John.

**Because Dean is humanity's champion, and life is not about dying, it's about living. People die every day without the apocalypse, but at least most of them get a chance, and sometimes a choice. Sure, many will wind up in heaven, but not all, and some of them will be coerced into going the other way (ref. Jane's murder of Paul last week). And before they get there, they might endure all the horrors Dean and Sam have fought so hard to defeat. He might have temporarily lost sight of that, in the relief of giving in, but it will galvanize him. I'm sure of it!

***Sam didn't really get a chance to explain, but he never saw his escapes as rejection of Dean. It will take a lot to convince Dean of that, and we might not get to see it (chick flick moments, you know), but somehow Sam will have to convince Dean that he's just as important to Sam as Sam is to him.

****I know the religion connection bothers a lot of people, but as an exploration of relationships, I LOVE this. Who doesn't ask how God could let horrible things happen? If humans are made in his image, why can't he be fallible, too? Why can't he also give in to despair and the relief of washing his hands of the problem? Ooooh, how would Dean feel to be told he and God have a lot in common?

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The Rest of the Journey:

I have worked really hard...most of the time...to avoid spoilers. But today I couldn't resist and I clicked a link for promo photos of tomorrow night's episode, and saw...um...a spoiler. It made me mad! So of course, while I was writing this post, I went to IMDb to look at the summaries for past episodes, and read the writeup for next week. Which spoiled me again! I'm very excited, because it sounds like a super awesome episode and the specific spoiler makes me soooooo gleeful, but I wish I hadn't known.

Anyway, as sad as I am that we're down to 5 episodes remaining this season, I'm on the edge of my seat to see them:

Point of No Return

Hammer of the Gods

The Devil You Know

Two Minutes to Midnight

Swan Song

So Who IS Castiel Working For?

Zachariah and Company plant a vision in Chuck's head to draw Dean to his dad's old storage unit, thinking the Michael Sword is there. Zach tells Dean he is the sword, a vessel for Michael to take over and lead the war against Lucifer. Dean says no, no matter how Zach tries to force him to say yes. Castiel shows up to interrupt the torture, punish Zach's nameless goons for backing the wrong horse, and make Zach fix the boys and go away. He carves a sigil into Sam and Dean's ribs--pretty much unremovable, I'm thinking--that will hide them from angel and demon alike.

And along the way, he implies that he was put together, and Sam and Dean were pulled out of Lucifer's entrance site, by someone more powerful. But who?

Here are the prevailing theories, in order of my preference, with some arguments for and/or against each:

1. God
Is God back in the building? He would certainly have the power to yank the boys up into an airplane without anyone noticing, to instantly detox Sam, to take the millions of pieces of...Chunky Soup and put them back into Castiel. Also, Cas is pretty darned motivated all of a sudden. Gone is all the indecision he battled last season, the questions over what was right and what was wrong. He didn't hesitate to kill and banish and even order Zachariah around, to which Zach responded pretty quickly.

Castiel never really veered from his belief in God, though he felt as if he was. I can see God rewarding him for his loyalty by making him his emissary. We can also tap into other stories that lay out "rules" for what God and Satan can and can't do in the battle for humanity: Generally, God is hampered by free will. So his (or her!) direct interference with events is forbidden, or restricted. I can see the writers employing that concept here.

2. Some other high-up being
According to Wikipedia, Michael is the only archangel named in the Bible as recognized by both Christians and Jews. But some books of the Bible also name Gabriel and Raphael. So if Zachariah is banking on Michael, maybe one of them is opposing him, again using Castiel as his emissary. He would be higher on the totem pole, which might explain Zachariah's immediate capitulation.

Another argument for this is that if God is the one in charge now, that pretty much puts an end to Zachariah's plan, doesn't it? He was basing everything on God having left the building, and he knows the punishment for defying God's wishes is death. That would put a big hole in continuity of narrative. But if it's Gabriel or Raphael, Zach could be sufficiently cowed by them to stop his immediate actions, but not the long-term ones.

3. Michael
This was actually my first thought when we saw the light, that Michael didn't approve of Zachariah's Guantanamo methods. It's still a possibility. Maybe he intends to lead the war, but wants Dean to be a truly willing vessel, not a coerced one, or he plans to find another vessel. Or maybe he doesn't intend to come to earth, and wants Castiel to guide the boys in the war, instead.

4. Someone we haven't seen/thought of yet
Not much to say about that, because if we haven't seen them or thought of them, it's hard to predict them. Any ideas?

5. Lucifer and/or Castiel himself
One of my friends doesn't trust Cas at all. She's very suspicious about how he came back, and thinks maybe Lucifer put him back together. After all, Castiel has fallen, hasn't he? Or has he? We know he at least has fewer powers--Misha keeps saying he's been fired/laid off, and is becoming less angelic. Falling means a death sentence, so if he's fallen, why would God or one of the more powerful angels use him?

Lucifer would definitely like to prevent Michael from taking over Dean, and he's seems to be pretty good at emotional coercion. He could have convinced Cas to work for him, or manipulated him into it without Cas realizing.

It's also possible that whoever put Castiel back together isn't giving him orders, but that Castiel is operating on his own, taking advantage of his second chance to do what he feels is right.

It also occurs to me that the stuff the writers and actors feed us isn't always accurate. After all, Kripke said (I think in a preseason [4] issue of Supernatural magazine) they were going to use different actresses for Ruby, and that wasn't really the case long-term.


Is the Castiel Debate taking the place of the Ruby Debate? Will we question Castiel's goodness and loyalties all the way through the season? And if so, will we be thrilled or disappointed at the outcome? Whatever it turns out to be, this mystery has the potential to be my favorite one of the season, and I can't wait for tomorrow!

So, which do you think it is? Or do you have another theory I didn't list? Tell us in the comments!

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Screencaps courtesy 13-bullets.com.