There is a discomfort I felt about the fact that Metatron is a middle-aged white guy who set up shop as the Messenger of God among Native Americans and expected tribute from them in the form of stories, but beyond that, the show even managed to be a lot less problematic that usual.
My favorite parts were Kevin Tran's scenes and the scene with Metatron. Osric Chau sells it, as usual, with his anger and his smugness and the fact that there's just this understanding that this kid can't be broken. Kevin Tran is a stronger man than many could ever hope to be, and he came by it by a way that's just as hard as the Winchesters' was. I have always loved Kevin Tran, but I have never loved him as much as I do now.
As for Metatron, he says:
But really? It was your storytelling. That...is the true flower of free will. At least, as you've mastered it so far. When you create stories, you become Gods, of tiny, intricate dimensions unto themselves. I just -- so many worlds. I have read -- as much as it's possible for an angel to read, and I haven't caught up.This is absolutely brilliant dialogue, because it encapsulates the exact way the Show has treated both Free Will and the idea of narrative in and of itself.
Because Free Will isn't, and has never been about making choices. In this show, Free Will is power. The power to do as what's good for you, personally. Because you never really have a choice in the matter. You either win, and keep living, or you die a slave to the fate that's been written for you. The show has always made the conflict a binary one, like every other binary in the show -- Good/Evil, Family/Monster, etc. There is no in between, because the show refuses to treat on it.
Until now.
Because what is the response to this speech from Metatron, the angel who wrote God's Word? What do the Winchesters say in return?
Sam tells Metatron to shoot him, because Metatron is a "cowardly piece of shit" who read over the suffering of humanity for millennia and done nothing, even though much of that suffering has been at the hands of angels. Dean pulls Sam away from danger, but adds:
You want a story? Try Kevin Tran's story. He was just a kid, he was a good, straight-A kid, and then he got sucked in to all of this, this angel crap, and became of prophet of the Word of God. Your prophet. And you shoulda been lookin' out for him, but no! Instead, you're holed up here, reading books.
And Sam continues:
He's dead now, because of you.This, this is a rejection of the kind of Free Will advocated by Metatron, because what good is power when you don't have it? What good is power when you have it, and don't use it to help others? The self-centered Free Will of earlier in the story has to be rejected in favor of using power to help those who can't take power for themselves.
It's also a really good point and reminder for someone like me, who loves learning, loves reading. What good are all the things I know, if I don't go out there and do things with that knowledge? We need, all of us, to strike a balance between consumption of narratives and acting out our own.
Everyone has knowledge of their own, everyone has a story to tell, but if we don't use that knowledge and those stories that we aggregate when we learn from each other to do something, we've failed.
I think that's really something we need to think about, as people.
Kevin, of course, is not actually dead, and Metatron rescues him from Crowley's clutches. I'm hoping for more Metatron and Kevin interaction, because Kevin deserves to know more about what he's been having to go through. He deserves to understand, and he deserves an apology.
But, overall, this was an excellent episode, and I hope next week's is just as good.
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