Have you ever witnessed a car crash?
It’s like being in a movie. You see the first car pull out into the street; you see the second car coming towards it; a light goes off in your brain. You rise from your seat, just a little, not much time for anything else, and if you’re really quick, you might call out just as the two cars collide.
Inside the car is usually a little bit faster. You pull into the lane; you make a turn onto a street; you get hit in the door; you hit the door. Sometimes, though, you can see it coming, or maybe feel it. Some sort of thing barreling down on you, too close to stop but too far to run, and you don’t look because, maybe, if you aren’t paying attention, it won’t hurt so bad.
But it does. You go limp, stunned by the force, and slam into a parked car before stopping, engine smoking, people running towards you; you watch in horror as the car you hit finally comes to a stop; you look up blearily as the fastest of the crowd reach your door.
* * * * * *
They can all see it coming, you know; Sam, Dean, and Castiel. We can, too. Standing at that table in the bunker, at the end of this week’s episode of Supernatural—they can feel it hurtling towards them like a freight train. They already know that Dean is lying about his encounter with Amara, and they know that he is holding back; Dean knows that they know this, too. You could chalk it up to simple embarrassment, or fear, or whatever other type emotion, sure. You can chalk up Dean lying about the fact that he literally cannot make himself kill Amara, even though she is the greatest danger this world has ever faced, to a number of things.
But here’s the kicker: it’s not that Dean is incapable of killing her, but that he is incapable of telling the only two people in the world that he loves and that love him back that he cannot kill her. Why hide that information? Why be so obstinate in the face of certain danger?
Because in order to kill Amara, Dean has to go, too.
They all feel it, deep down, that Dean and Amara are connected in a way that doesn’t make sense. Amara is an all-consuming force, with power beyond imagination. She is literally a God, broken free from an eternity of imprisonment, ready to settle an “old score” with the creator of the universe. She’s imprinted on Dean, she says, because she finds him fascinating; she’s never met one of her brother’s creations before. But I don’t buy it. It’s not that I don’t think Amara finds Dean fascinating, because I do. I just don’t see why an all-powerful being with unlimited potential would allow one of three people in the whole world who have experience in stopping apocalyptic events to survive for more than a few nanoseconds. Something is holding her back.
* * * * * *
Amara is loose now. Into the world, free to do as she pleases. The question is: how powerful can she get? Is there a breaking point, in which she’s consumed enough souls to become her old self; or is she always growing, always eating, and as such her power is truly limitless?
Even God fears what she might do. Sam and Dean have prayed for guidance over and over again, trying to suss out what they were supposed to do in the face of insurmountable evil. The fact that God is responding now means that this is serious, and that things truly are dark. Even when Michael and Lucifer were threatening to rip the world into little tiny pieces, God did not intervene until afterwards. If the destruction of his own creation doesn’t bother him, what does it say about what Amara might do?
* * * * * *
The directing and music choices this season on Supernatural have been fantastic; whoever chose the static-like sound that was all over this episode really outdid themselves, because that fit perfectly. The directing feels so much more daring and interesting and exciting than in the past; before, it seemed like it was pretty simple, straightforward work was being done. I’m not putting that down, or at least I don’t mean to, but this year feels so much different. Perhaps I’m just enjoying the story and the like so much I am being more charitable, but I don’t think so. Something is different this year about Supernatural, and I can’t quite put my finger on it.
I hope it continues.
[Photo credit: Katie Yu/The CW]
