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Supernatural and the Prodigal
Okay, I admit it: quite possibly the biggest kink-button SPN hits (or rather, pounds with its mighty fist) for me is its playing around with prodigal narrative. And when I say kink-button, I mean kink-button. Like, when I talk about it in posts like this? What I can actually examine and articulate is the tip of the iceberg. The massive, unaccessible giant hunk of ice below the surface tends to make itself known in pretty much any creative endeavor I undertake, and the extent of it is not something I am consciously aware of, that much I know for sure.
Anyway. Supernatural and the prodigal narrative.
Lawrence, Kansas. Aside from (or should I say, as well as) Dean's whole "I swore I'd never go back there" stuff, I am freaking head-over-heels for the Winchester family's relationship to Lawrence. John's diary talks about how after Mary's death he stayed with Mike (the guy he co-owned his garage with) and his wife, how they were increasingly disturbed by his behaviour, and how he eventually left them - without saying goodbye, before they were even awake.
In other words, John Winchester disappeared. John Winchester and his infant children disappeared. This is something that would not be taken lightly, despite the fact that the police closed the case of Mary's death and ruled out foul play.
In 'Home' we see Sam and Dean talking to Mike, and he mentions a police investigation following John's disappearance, that the case was never closed.
And in 'The Benders' we see Dean & Sam's names come up on the police record search, but not John's (ignoring, of course, the fact that there are more Winchesters than 3 in the world anyway). And hey, why isn't Mary's name on there? Does John have any other relatives? What happened to *his* parents? (and no matter what the answer to that one is, it's completely relevant.)
I like the concept that John leaving Lawrence signals *that* John Winchester ceasing to exist - at least in that world. That Sam and Dean come up in the police search because they are so totally removed from their childhood identities, pre-fire.
Because really, police records? Open (albeit old) police case? There would have to have been some severance there to ensure the connection between the Sam and Dean Winchester in the police records and infants Sam and Dean Winchester who disappeared from Lawrence in 1983 was never made.
I am totally pinged by Sam and Dean visiting Mike, visiting Lawrence, and Lawrence (and Mike, with whom they lived with some twenty years earlier) not recognising them. That is the most ... stimulating part of the prodigal narrative for me: the return from the other world, changed. How the pieces won't fit together anymore, how that effects the players on both sides (those who left, those who were left behind). What happens when the surfaces of each are pressed to the other.
The "I can never go home" refrain of the Pilot is something that echoes throughout the very elements of the show, I think.
And speaking of homes, Bobby has a home. Daniel Elkins has a home. Pastor Jim has a home, and gathering from the arsenal mounted on the wall behind him, Caleb has a home.
That is to say, the nomad lifestyle isn't par for the course for hunters. Why does John choose this lifestyle? Ostensibly he's chasing the demon, but he said that trail had been cold for nearly 20 years before he goes 'missing'. Are we to assume that they did, in fact, spend the past 20 years on the road? In the draft pilot, they had a home base they roamed from. There's certainly no mention of a home, or base, in what we see aired, but was that always the case? It *is* nice to think, and possibly more likely than motel after motel for 20 years, especially with schooling, that they rented places here and there.
How long they stayed in each and what made John choose those places and choose to move on is something many a fic-writer has speculated on. Maybe they were relatively stable, if moving around a lot, before school ended and Sam left? And then Dean and John took well and truly to the road.
Some things to think about, anyway.
Anyway. Supernatural and the prodigal narrative.
Lawrence, Kansas. Aside from (or should I say, as well as) Dean's whole "I swore I'd never go back there" stuff, I am freaking head-over-heels for the Winchester family's relationship to Lawrence. John's diary talks about how after Mary's death he stayed with Mike (the guy he co-owned his garage with) and his wife, how they were increasingly disturbed by his behaviour, and how he eventually left them - without saying goodbye, before they were even awake.
In other words, John Winchester disappeared. John Winchester and his infant children disappeared. This is something that would not be taken lightly, despite the fact that the police closed the case of Mary's death and ruled out foul play.
In 'Home' we see Sam and Dean talking to Mike, and he mentions a police investigation following John's disappearance, that the case was never closed.
And in 'The Benders' we see Dean & Sam's names come up on the police record search, but not John's (ignoring, of course, the fact that there are more Winchesters than 3 in the world anyway). And hey, why isn't Mary's name on there? Does John have any other relatives? What happened to *his* parents? (and no matter what the answer to that one is, it's completely relevant.)
I like the concept that John leaving Lawrence signals *that* John Winchester ceasing to exist - at least in that world. That Sam and Dean come up in the police search because they are so totally removed from their childhood identities, pre-fire.
Because really, police records? Open (albeit old) police case? There would have to have been some severance there to ensure the connection between the Sam and Dean Winchester in the police records and infants Sam and Dean Winchester who disappeared from Lawrence in 1983 was never made.
I am totally pinged by Sam and Dean visiting Mike, visiting Lawrence, and Lawrence (and Mike, with whom they lived with some twenty years earlier) not recognising them. That is the most ... stimulating part of the prodigal narrative for me: the return from the other world, changed. How the pieces won't fit together anymore, how that effects the players on both sides (those who left, those who were left behind). What happens when the surfaces of each are pressed to the other.
The "I can never go home" refrain of the Pilot is something that echoes throughout the very elements of the show, I think.
And speaking of homes, Bobby has a home. Daniel Elkins has a home. Pastor Jim has a home, and gathering from the arsenal mounted on the wall behind him, Caleb has a home.
That is to say, the nomad lifestyle isn't par for the course for hunters. Why does John choose this lifestyle? Ostensibly he's chasing the demon, but he said that trail had been cold for nearly 20 years before he goes 'missing'. Are we to assume that they did, in fact, spend the past 20 years on the road? In the draft pilot, they had a home base they roamed from. There's certainly no mention of a home, or base, in what we see aired, but was that always the case? It *is* nice to think, and possibly more likely than motel after motel for 20 years, especially with schooling, that they rented places here and there.
How long they stayed in each and what made John choose those places and choose to move on is something many a fic-writer has speculated on. Maybe they were relatively stable, if moving around a lot, before school ended and Sam left? And then Dean and John took well and truly to the road.
Some things to think about, anyway.
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It is however, mostly speculation on my part.
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hmm.
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Hmm. I don't know that I'd necessarily expect a lot of work to be put into the case. People move all the time. A guy whose wife died picked up and moved out of town - a town that had painful memories - with his two kids, without leaving a forwarding address. He may be technically "missing," because no one in town has contact info, but he's an adult, he's got uncontested custody of his children, and there's no indication there are any close relatives to challenge either that custody or his actions so ... I dunno. I can easily see the police being all, "The guy moved. So?" and keeping an open casefile on it in case anyone ever turned up an address. He's been cleared in his wife's death; wherever he is, anything he does once he gets there is the new jurisdiction's problem.
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Ummm "Dad's on a hunting trip, and he hasn't been HOME in a few days"?
The pilot definatly gave me the impression that there was a home of some sort, a base of operations for John and Dean. But since Daddy goes missing and Dean and Sam are trying to find him, there's no point going home because he won't be there (which definitely resonates with your "I can never go home" point). Also, in the later episodes, when Daddy and Sammy are reunited, the way they talk about what happened sounds like "being kicked out of home." But then, in the flashback sequences, they're definitely living in motels. I dunno. I somehow got the impression that the 'home' mentioned in the pilot was somewhere near-ish to Sammy, so that Daddy could swing past and check on him on occasion - didn't want to be too far away now that his boy wasn't with him all the time.
Also, I can't believe I'm telling YOU what I think is really going on with your show. What have you done to me???
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I'm pretty sure Dean's being deliberately cryptic so's not to alarm or alert the muggle in their presence that daddy might have been eaten by a monster while he was out of the vicinity of his adult son who he's raised like a soldier ;)
That's the only time in the pilot a 'home' is mentioned. Whenever they talk about Sam leaving, it's always Sam 'leaving them' or just 'leaving', no 'leaving home' is ever mentioned.
In Bugs Dean says John 'swung by Stanford a few times' - I more got the impression that that was 'in his travels' than 'from a home base' (which, would have been more note-worthy to mention that 'swung by a few times').
Also, at that point the intensity of their fight has left Sam wondering if John is ever going to want to see him again - either that's indicative of John's attitude (ie. an attitude that wouldn't budge, would definitely not settle down close to Sam) or enough of Sam's attitude that Dean would have definitely told him if that was the case.
Anyway, hee. I'm not convinced that there's a 'home'. I think, essentially, if there was one written in the canon - why the hell haven't they been there? That's evidence enough for me.
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Also, John makes it pretty clear that the reason he was so angry about Sam leaving (apart from being proud and stubborn) was that he was worried because he wouldn't be able to protect him anymore (you were talking about this in an earlier post). Given that, it makes sense to me that he'd 'settle' (if you could call it that) near-by so that he could keep an eye on things. Especially if, as you say, he suspects Sam is important to the Ceiling Demon. From that perspective, setting-up base near Sam makes sense not only as a protective Daddy thing to do, but also as a my-life's-purpose-is-to-find-the-Demon sort of thing to do.
But yeah, not actually in the show, just the impression I got.
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Do you remember this at all? I would really like to find it again.
Thanks.
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I think the dynamics and movements of the Winchesters in Sam's last few years with them is of paramount significance! It's hard to do much more than speculate, but each option has such large repercussions anyway...
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I see them moving more in the first few years and then staying in places for maybe a couple of months at a time (in cheap furnished apartments and the like) for the boys to go to school ('cause they are clearly educated and I don't see John managing to teach them all the hunting skills and school stuff, it wouldn't leave him much time for actual hunting). And then motel hoping during the summer.
I figure the reason the settle one place for so long while Sam's in high school is due to his insistence. He probably wanted it to happen before (his yearning for a normal life and all) but not until he's a teenager would he really have the power (which is not exactly the right word there but I'm just going to go with it) to push John in the direction he wanted. John wouldn't be happy about it which would lead to more tension between them culminating in his telling Sam to not come back (or whatever the actually wording was) when Sam gets accepted to Standford.
I could also see Dean not liking the idea of staying in one place (all those comments to the effect of normal being bad/not making sense) but staying, even when John goes on hunts, for Sam as company and protection.
And, even if they did settle for more than a couple of months (or years) at a time I don't think either John or Dean would consider the place home. Sam would, but not John and Dean.
Well, now that I've go that out of my system. The reason I found myself here in the first place was that I wanted to tell you how very very awesome the Super-Canon site is (I spent a good deal of time wandering around there today when I should have been doing other things). And now that I've realized that you are also a Firefly person I'm also going to friend you.
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I'm glad you find the Super-canon site useful!! I'm rather fond of it myself.
And yaye, Firefly. Though I'm pretty much SPN!SPN!SPN! all the way these days :D
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