Powers as a metaphor (later seasons critique)
Hi, I wanted to talk about my love for the earlier seasons and what I feel went wrong. This is just about the season-long story arcs, there are definitely great individual episodes in the later seasons.
I think there's a reason that X-Men inspired, magic-users-as-an-allegory-for-oppressed-minorities stories are so popular. The fantasy part makes it a fun, safe way to explore heavy topics, but they still resonate emotionally because we can see ourselves so much in the characters.
Stories like Eleven finding family in Stranger Things after being dehumanized and hunted for her powers, or Caroline's mother accepting her in The Vampire Diaries after her father tried to vampire-conversion-therapy her, work so well because they give us the escapism of fantasy while tapping into the some of the heaviest emotions of real life.
While the storyline about Sam's powers wasn't unique, the twist of him being a hunter and Dean's role was extremely interesting. Two hunters raised to hate supernatural creatures having to contend with one of them turning into one, and to question everything they were taught. Dean having to choose between his loyalty to his father/ beliefs vs. his little brother. It's so good!!
In episode 1x10 Sam tries to tell Dean about his visions and Dean jokes, "Don't ask, don't tell," a reference to a US military policy for LGBTQ+ soldiers. Ironically the same joke was actually made 6 years later in X-Men: First Class when a character is explaining why he didn't open up about his mutation at work. Throughout Ruby's time on the show she accused Dean of being "racist" for mistrusting all demons, and even when it wasn't being explicitly called out magic being used as a metaphor made the stories really impactful. For example, Sam having strong religious beliefs only to find out that his religion doesn't like him back is a situation many people can relate to.
Episode 2x03 Bloodlust is a great example of how important Sam's powers could have been for Dean's character. Dean was raised to be a perfect soldier and never questioned his father's orders. Having Dean come across an extremely radical hunter who reminds him of recently deceased father, questioning his entire belief system, and choosing to save a vampire is such a turning point for his character.
>Think about all the hunts we went on, Sammy, our whole lives. What if we killed things that didn't deserve killing? You know? I mean, the way Dad raised us...
Dean questioning his moral code also works really well alongside Dean starting to question his childhood for the first time, and realizing after years of defending John that he deserved better.
It's also telling that it's Sam's influence that gets Dean to save the vampire (First him trying to explain, then Gordon threatening Sam). Dean's protectiveness of Sam is so strong that it can break through a lifetime of conditioning. He'll throw away every belief he's ever known and risk his life to save Sam, and this theme continues throughout the season. When Meg tricks him into believing Sam has killed someone, his first instinct is to start wiping down fingerprints. He starts avoiding other hunters out of fear someone will discover Sam's powers. He even tries to protect Sam's feelings, making jokes and hiding his fear from Sam, or comforting Sam when he has a vision.
For me that era is the peak of the show. The family/ character elements and the supernatural elements work perfectly in line, and there was so much potential for future growth as well. We had:
- Sam's growing powers, especially the telekinesis introduced in 1x14, which gave endless potential for future power-related storylines
- Azazel and the magic children
- Hunters, demons, and police all going after Sam and Dean
While seasons 4 and 5 are great in their own right, there was a change of trajectory from the first few seasons that hampered the direction of the show overall. Instead of Sam's story being one of self-acceptance, with his powers being a metaphor for real-world otherness, his powers are portrayed as disastrous and he goes on hating himself for them. Their abusive father is proved right in saying Sam may need to be killed, with Sam killing himself to save the world. Dean's original worldview remains intact and years later when he meets a kid in the position Sam had been in, he wants to kill him. All of these choices to me are just kind of sad and don't feel like the same story originally being told.
There are other things I dislike about the later seasons: Supernatural-focused storylines would have been more interesting than hunter-focused storylines like British Men of Letters, I dislike that Dean got the depressing ending he expected and that it took his death for Sam to achieve happiness instead of their relationship developing to a point where they could both be happy, putting Sam in situations where Dean always had to take care of him even if it was against Sam's will betrayed Sam's story of seeking autonomy and Dean's story of moving away from the role his father put him in, and the overall tone/ intensity changed massively from the earlier seasons.
However letting go of Sam's powers is always the most glaring one for me because it was such a driving force of all these narrative and character arcs and the core story, in my opinion.
Still love the show though ❤️