Heaven and Hell Review

The previous episode challenged a number of sensibilities. I can’t imagine that this episode will be any different. My only true regret is that some fans may end up tossing the remote and taking the show off their “must watch” list before taking the time to consider what the writers were trying to do. As blasphemous as some of the concepts might appear to be, this is nothing more than another attempt to take a very broad concept and apply it to the “Supernatural” universe.

I will be honest and say that I cringed when Anna was revealed as a fallen angel, especially when she gave Dean her long list of reasons for wanting to become human. I’m sure the notion of angels having to take the existence of God on faith was incredibly galling to those of far more devout belief. Nor was it particularly thrilling, I imagine, for Anna to describe angels as cold and unfeeling, utterly rigid in their thinking.

For all that, however, I can’t help but notice that these comments were coming from a fallen angel. In other words, not an angel who was still part of the flock, but one that had fallen from grace on more than one level. And one that was specifically designed by the writers to play on all of the concerns and fears that the Brothers Winchester might have, particularly Dean. I would expect a fallen angel to describe the angelic life in a negative light!

Since the series is ultimately told from the perspective of the Winchesters, focusing on their reactions to things, Anna is seen in a more positive light than the angels. The angels are seen as rigid and uncaring, because to the brothers, Anna hasn’t done anything wrong. Of course, part of that is their inability to internalize the context. Anna may be a rather pleasant and sexy fallen angel, but she’s in the same category as Lucifer. Her self-awareness on that point doesn’t change very much, because she’s denying her integral decision to disobey.

In a larger context, what we’re also seeing emerge on “Supernatural” is a continuum approach to free will. God created angels and gave them just enough free will to do their job. The drawback is that some of them get a taste of it and rebel, especially when they’re close to humans, who have quite a bit more. Should humans go too far in the free will department, really breaking the rules, then they slip into the demonic territory. One can then interpret Lucifer as the polar opposite: the ultimate excess of free will and pride.

Because humanity is in the middle of the continuum, they see everything in extremes on both sides. They accept those extreme interpretation perhaps too readily. Humans would see the apparent rigid obedience of the angels as oppressive: they get to bask in the light of the Lord, but they are bound tightly by chains of God’s authority. The rules of their existence feel restrictive and cold.

On the other hand, the demonic side of the equation is seen as unbearably depraved. It’s everything horrible a human can do, unleashed without a hint of moral reason. How many Hunters automatically equate demons as pure evil? Yet we’ve already seen examples of demons with more or less human qualities, especially Ruby. And now, as of this episode, we see how the line is blurred more than we realized.

Hunters exist within a niche of humanity that must operate in somewhat questionable moral ground, somewhere south of the midpoint of the free will continuum. Sam, as a result of Azazel’s intervention and Ruby’s influence, has slipped further down the spiral. The reaction of the angels to his actions and choices are a good indicator of this.

The revelation at the end of this episode is even more startling, because the parallels between Dean and Ruby throughout the episode (who and what they were willing to risk for Sam’s sake, for example) pay off in a huge way. Dean spent a lot more time in hell than Sam had thought, and for quite some time, he was torturing souls. In other words, he’s not only not so different from Sam, in terms of his choices, but he might even be further down the demonic path than even he suspects.

This places his reactions with Sam earlier in the season in a deeper context, but it also explains some of the reactions from Castiel and Uriel. If Dean was going proto-demon, and God pulled him out of Hell for some specific purpose, would the angels assigned to the task question the meaning behind that? No wonder they test Dean so much, and worry over his associations!

Merging the obvious definitions of good and evil \with the “free will continuum” aspect, there’s a clear divide between various characters, and their relationships follow in suit. Uriel is the highest on the ladder, and he finds human free will distasteful and doesn’t trust the Winchesters at all. He certainly doesn’t like Ruby. Castiel was closer to humanity, and came to appreciate them. He finds it easier to relate to humans, but there’s still a distinct separation. Anna was even closer to humans, and as a result, she fell, tempted by the emotions and freedom that humanity offers.

The innocents of the world, the ones being saved by the Hunters, are in the wide middle between Castiel and the Winchesters, who are at the top of the “too much” category. Somewhere below them would be Ruby, who is certainly a demon and not particular good, but demonstrates redemptive qualities that the majority of demons lack. From there, demons like Lilith, Azazel, and Alastair are much further down.

It’s easy enough to see how one might slip down the ladder towards the bottom of the continuum, but the real question is how one can climb back up. That’s the process of redemption (and, from the religious point of view, salvation). We already have angels falling and Dean being pulled up from Hell. We have Sam pointing to demons and monsters who make the choice to reject the urge to do evil, however rare that might be. Now those metaphors don’t just apply to Sam; they also apply to Dean. The stakes have gotten higher.

This is still a bit of oversimplification, and the amazing thing is that this is still setting the stage for what must, inevitably, come of this wave of information and perspective. We might see how all of this is adding up for the Brothers Winchester, but speaking in terms of storytelling, this is preparing the audience for something bigger. These episodes are defining the rules of the game so that the implications are clear when the clock strikes midnight.

While it’s possible to reconcile most of what happens in the episode, not everything works. Anna’s true nature was revealed in one of the most awkward scenes in recent memory, and the whole concept of the “grace” didn’t seem to fit into the “Supernatural” mythos very well. So angels can take on physical form if their grace is removed or voluntarily discarded? For that matter, was Lucifer once in human form, thus beginning the process that converts humans into demons through perversion in Hell? There are a lot of questions still to be answered and there are a lot of ways that this can still go wrong (and for some, it already has), but I, for one, can’t wait to see where all of this leads.