InsaneJournal

Wayward Son: Supernatural and Spirituality pt 1
I could’ve done a Meta Post on “Lost”, and I bet people are wondering “hey, where’s the promised “Lost” post?” Well, I realized that as cool and interesting as the parallels they’ve drawn this season are, they’re also pretty obvious. I mean, the only way you could miss it is if you never read the books in question and if you haven’t, it’s not likely you’re reading this post either. It’d be redundant to lay it all out for you as if you were small, stupid children.

So I decided to do my first ever official “Supernatural” meta instead. I have hopes to publish this but there are two crimps in that plan, 1) I might be Jossed, and 2) I haven't yet found a venue for it.



Hi, this is John Winchester. I can’t come to the phone right now. If it’s an emergency, contact my son Dean

It’s a couple of episodes in, maybe three or four, when the boys learn that their dad has been directing people to them with assignments, essentially making them proxies for himself. Naturally, Dean is proud, Sam is hurt and irritated, because each boy’s perception of John Winchester is skewed- but more on that later.

But with the beginning of the introduction of religious elements to the storyline (starting in the episode “Houses of the Holy”, but you could make a case for it starting as far back as the episode “Phantom Traveler” which the quote comes from) this element of the story takes on a new level of meaning, especially when we finally get Anna’s conversation about God with Dean in S4. And then I found this LJ meta post that set up this whole theory about Dean being a Christ allegory.

The who and the what now? But he’s a hard drinking, foul mouthed, promiscuous, criminal, isn’t he? I mean, he didn’t even believe in God until recently. No, it makes more sense than it seems like it does at first. Especially as I look back on previous seasons and see that it was pretty much there all along.

Masquerading as a man with a reason
My charade is the event of the season

Jesus, according to mainstream Christian mythology, is an avatar of the son of God, often this is interpreted as him actually being God himself. And if not a literal avatar, at least he’s meant to be a symbolic stand in of that.

According to SPN show canon, only four angels in Heaven have ever seen the face of God, and Uriel claims he doesn’t exist anymore. Most of the demons in Hell have never met Lucifer, many wonder if he even exists. There is a fan theory occasionally floating around that says Lucifer’s prison is a human body, trapped on earth, constantly being reborn and forgetting who he is. And if Lucifer and the Anti Christ share the same weird “I’m My Own Grandpa” relationship that God and Jesus do, the Anti Christ in this show’s mythology should be, for all intents and purposes, a Lucifer avatar. And if the Anti Christ is who we’re all pretty sure it is, then the show’s Jesus stand in should also be pretty obvious. He’s even had his own version of The Harrowing.

So far, I haven’t exactly been saying anything viewers of the show haven’t already figured out. I mean, they’re not exactly being subtle. But if the fan theory is right, and Lucifer is trapped in a human body, constantly being reborn and forgetting who he is, and Lucifer’s entire world is basically the opposite of God’s, God could also be stuck in some human body. Obviously, the bodies they’d be stuck in are those of the Anti Christ and the Jesus Stand In.

But is Dean really an appropriate Jesus? Here’s why I think it’s not as weird or surprising as it could be. First of all, Dean is a good man. He isn’t a lawful man, and he doesn’t pay much attention to conventional middle class ideas about what is nice or polite, but his heart is good. He can’t turn his back on someone who needs help, which is the main requirement for being a Sacrificial Savior. He literally “laid down his life for his brother”. Dean didn't just die for Sam, he gave up everything- his home, his chance at higher education or a regular job, when they were little, he even went hungry so Sam could eat. The demon Alistair on the show refers to Dean as a "righteous man", THE "Righteous Man" who is mentioned in a prophecy.

There are two popular tropes about modern day messiahs and Dean fits them both. The first one is that the Messiah is always someone who doesn't want it. Anyone who says they want it or actively seeks it out, or claims to be one, is always meant to be seen as suspect. Dean didn't want this, in fact, he didn't even know wanting it was an option, he fell into it entirely by accident. The Righteous Man who unwittingly tripped the Apocalypse countdown and who is, according to the prophecy, the only one who can stop it, did not have to be Dean but since it was, he's stuck with the role (like Frodo).

Speaking of that, these modern versions are often non believers. It's supposed to be ironic or something, they have to not only not want it, to the point of running away from it, but generally even reject the idea that there's a God to be a messiah *for*. Dean's character arc involves learning that there *is*. But Sam, who was always the believer, is the one who is slowly turning into the Anti Christ.