Supernatural - Discussion - Dean’s MoC: "There’ll be Peace When You Are Done"

[This is a one of a couple of mid-break feature articles taking a look at the storyline/writing of Dean and Sam. Sam’s up next week.]

No one epitomizes suffering more than Dean Winchester. The Mark of Cain seems to be the latest layer of misery added on top of a pile that’s been steadily growing for several seasons now. It’s a sign representing murder of a brother and born of a combination of repressed emotions and co-dependent dysfunction.

The Mark of a Cain comes with a relief valve though. Flip the switch to being demon and Dean loses pesky things like conscience, family responsibility, and emotional attachments, things that have created an unmanageable burden for Dean.

We’ve reached a point in the arc where both the characters and the fans are speculating about what a resolution to the MoC might look like. There are two parts to this storyline. One is the physical – how can the mark be removed, and the question – does it need to be? The other is psychological – Dean got the mark for a reason. It wasn’t something that snuck up on him. He sought it out while emotionally reeling from the consequences of the truth about Sam’s Gadreel -possession coming to light and the betrayal of Gadreel in killing Kevin.

While the first part (the physical) is getting plenty of speculation in the fandom already, I wanted to take a deeper look at the second part (the psychological), because the source of this storyline leads to some interesting questions. Does removing the arc, or even learning to control it without emotional resolution to the root cause, solve Dean’s problems? And what exactly are Dean’s problems?

Sam seems to have an idea but is not sharing at the moment. In the scene following Sam finding out that he was tricked into having an angel possess him, and Dean commenting that he’s poison, and Sam responded that that’s not the problem, but didn’t elaborate further. Charlie – in a recent storyline in which her split personality mirrored Dean’s battle between his good side and his bad – suggests Dean needs to forgive himself. But is it really that simple?

Burdened Son

Dean’s propensity for misery wasn’t always the case. When the series began, Dean was portrayed as an on-the-surface carefree young man who – while he had had to make some sacrifices – loved his family and loved that he got to save people in his unusual job. He was someone who could be happy with the simpler things of life, like a good beer, a good burger, and an attractive woman. Unlike his brother who tended to over-think things, Dean let things like guilt over credit card fraud roll off his shoulders because he recognized that he was doing the world a service that would never be properly acknowledged or rewarded.

While Dean was portrayed early on as having a deep sense of responsibility over his family, internalizing their misfortunes more than he reasonably should (which intensified after his father died and sold his soul to save him), this feeling of unrational responsibility didn’t seem to extend to people outside of his small circle of family. Whereas Sam in the early seasons was working through his fears of becoming a monster by overcompensating with a need to save everybody and everything that showed the slightest potential for redemption, Dean seemed to keep a healthier balance. An example is from season 4’s “Are You There God …” The brothers and Bobby are visited by several ghosts of people they had failed to save. Sam is immediately overcome by guilt when confronted by Agent Henriksen’s ghost, and Dean’s response to Sam’s comment that they got him killed is, “Stop it .... if you're not thinking answers, don't think at all.” He may feel guilt, but he can put it in perspective. Later in the episode, Dean’s response to the ghost of Ronald Reznick, when Ronald tells him he’s going to eat Dean alive, is “I’m not a cheeseburger.”

In the earlier seasons, it seemed to be the weight of protecting his brother, with everything stacked against them, that was crushing him. It was after John died making a deal with a demon to save Dean, and John’s final words to Dean that he might have to kill Sam, that this burden started manifesting itself in resentment and repressed violence (Examples are Dean smashing the Impala with a crowbar in “Everyone Loves a Clown” and the relish with which Dean killed a vampire in “Bloodlust”).

In the first few seasons, we also began to see that Dean had been entrusted with protecting Sam from a very early age – likely too early. John had imparted to Dean that it was his job to look after his younger brother – a role that came with both benefits and costs. His love for his brother was real, and Sam partially filled the void left when his mother died by giving Dean family. John was portrayed as most often not being there for his sons. At the same time, Dean’s role meant being forced to grow up too fast and sacrificing his own childhood. Dean, we saw, had low self-esteem and measured his own worth in his ability to protect his brother.

This love/hate/protectiveness/resentment of his brother is central to the Mark of Cain storyline, as we’ve learned that the Mark’s influence is pushing Dean in the direction of wanting to kill Sam.

Post-Hell Torturer

When Dean came back from Hell in season 4, he was permanently changed. We learned that after being tortured for 30 years in Hell, he finally broke and became a torturer himself for his remaining 10 years. But the thing that seemed to haunt Dean more was that he discovered he liked torturing souls. The violence hinted at in season 2 had found an outlet, and Dean began to fear losing himself to this violent side of himself. The heaviness introduced in season 4, while not always evident, has never ever really disappeared either. The lightness in Dean’s personality – early on shown in his desire for burgers, beer, and women – seemed to take on a darker tone as they seemed to be now more about escape rather than pleasure. In season 4, Dean started drinking heavily. In My Bloody Valentine, famine told Dean that he was empty inside: “You're not hungry, Dean, because inside, you're already...dead.”

While this would have been a good time for Dean to get into therapy, it didn’t happen and Dean coped by pushing everything down and struggling to hold things together. Adding to all of this was a growing rift between Sam and Dean. Sam hid that he was drinking demon blood with Ruby from Dean, and this resulted in Dean losing faith in Sam. Since Sam represented family to Dean – and Dean finds his purpose in family – Dean spiraled down into depression and despondency. Another thing that started appearing in the show was Dean demonstrating feelings of guilt over the deaths of all of the people who had helped them fight the Apocalypse. In “Point of No Return,” Dean lists off the names of people he says they responsible for getting killed, and it includes not only Pamela, Ellen and Jo, but also his mother – a curious choice since he was four years old when it happened and Sam was an infant. Dean and Sam had learned that the Apocalypse was about them – about their relationship mirroring Michael and Lucifer – and about how the story needed to end with one brother killing the other. In addition, Dean’s torturing in Hell launched the breaking of the seals that led to Lucifer’s escape from Hell. Since Dean was in Hell because of his decision to make a deal with a demon to bring Sam back from the dead, the guilt over their friends’ deaths is indirectly tied back to the mixed love/burden dynamic associated with his relationship with his brother.

Murderer/Killer

I think it was first in season 6 that the idea that Dean identified himself with being a killer was introduced. Whereas in the early seasons Dean saw hunting as black and white and good – they were killing monsters and saving people – in the later seasons the idea that the term “monster” is more about choice than about species clouded the issue. In “You Can’t Handle the Truth,” under the influence of a truth spell, Dean confessed, “But what I'm good at... is slicing throats. I ain't a father. I'm a killer. And there's no changing that. I know that now.” Season 6 was when the ethics of being a hunter was put under the microscope and the monsters started often appearing more sympathetic than the hunters.

It was Sam who first questioned whether they were killing things that didn’t need to be killed back in season 2’s “Bloodlust.” Sam continually pushed the debate about what constitutes a monster, as Sam himself, learning that he had demon blood in him, needed to believe that being a monster was about choice rather than destiny.

Prior to the start of season 8, Dean spent some time in Purgatory, where he seemed to find a release in being able to kill monsters without the guilt. Purgatory was portrayed as a more black and white world (represented visually by muted tones). Dean struggled with adjusting to being back and seemed to target a lot of his frustration on Sam who had been away from hunting and was at a very different place philosophically at the time. Dean was drawn to his new relationship with Benny – a simpler friendship from Purgatory – and seemed to find being with Sam difficult. The two found some resolution midseason, but for Dean the love/burden dynamic was back.

Mark of Cain

Season 9 began with Sam in a near death situation with traditional medicine being useless. While Dean this time didn’t make a deal with a demon, he did made a deal with an angel which required something Dean knew was wrong - helping the angel trick Sam into saying yes to possession (he admitted that Sam would choose to die before consenting to being possessed) and then lying to Sam for months about the possession. While deals with demons have been the worst culprits on this show, supernatural quick fixes with unknown consequences have generally been shown to be bad as they most often come with a cost. In “Faith,” Dean’s life was traded for another’s. In “Bad Day at Black Rock,” the cursed rabbit’s foot’s luck eventually backfired. In “Wishful Thinking,” Sam chose not to make a wish in the wishing well with the cursed coin because he said he knew it wouldn’t be real. Soulless Sam said he didn’t take the leprechaun up on his offer to get his soul back in “Clap Your Hands …” because he knew better than to make a deal. There does seem to be an exception on the show, and that is when the supernatural creature they’re dealing with is truly trustworthy (such as Cas or Death), but for the most part, Supernatural deals generally backfire.

When the truth came out, and Sam was upset, instead of facing the emotional fallout, Dean’s reaction was to go with Crowley to get the blade so that he could kill something, in this case Abaddon since Gadreel was inaccessible. It was the return of a pattern to repress his hurt and take it out in violence. Cain warned Dean that the Mark came a great cost but Dean’s thirst for blood was too strong.

The question now is what’s next?

Is learning to live with the mark the solution?

Learning to live as a monster isn’t a new concept to the show. Sam has seen himself as a “freak” since a young age. The term “freak” turned into “monster” when Sam learned he had demon blood in him. While this is Sam’s story (learning to accept being different), Dean’s story has always been about his unhealthy attachment to family and the consequences of the choices he makes to protect them. The Mark is a symbol of murder.  While Sam’s story could be dressed up as person learning to accept that he’s different from his family and society, for Dean, coming to accept the Mark as part of himself would mean accepting that he's a “murderer.”

However, the idea that Dean could learn to live with the mark has been suggested on the show, as Dean tries to follow Sam’s lead and live a more repressed lifestyle, apparently hoping this will help him grow self-control. But is diet and drink really Dean’s core issues? Dean’s mostly in control of himself in normal day-to-day activities. It ultimately seems to be family that’s his weak spot that sends him to making decisions (such as deals with demons) that under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t consider.  If he can’t control his emotional reactions to family as a human, will he be able to control them with them with the Mark intensifying everything? Is the presence of Sam/family in his life a ticking time bomb?

Is Sam Dean’s problem or solution?

This to me is one of the more interesting questions because I have trouble figuring out episode to episode whether Dean wants to protect his younger brother or bash his brains in. There’s potential for some deep psychological exploration here, as it came out during Dean’s time as a demon that his resentment toward Sam seems to date all the way back to Mary’s death. With lack of filters as a demon, the “we” got Mary killed (from season 5) turned into Sam got her killed.

There’s a lot of discussion in the fandom about Sam needing to save Dean. Sam lately has been shown to have unfaltering faith in his brother. Add with the parallel of Colette to Cain’s story, and how Colette’s support was the inspiration for Cain staying good for many years, the show seems to be heading in the direction of Sam being Dean’s support for learning to live with the Mark.

My opinion is probably less popular, in that I don’t think Sam’s faith in his brother has never been the issue. Over the course of the series, Sam has made it abundantly clear over and over again that he loves his brother, would do anything for his brother, and has faith in his brother. There have been rare exceptions (the demon blood period comes to mind) and they’ve had differences of opinions that were typical of family. But considering there’s been much more good in their relationship than bad, and that Dean’s issues with Sam started when Sam was an infant, Sam’s reactions can’t possibly be the root of Dean’s problems. Dean’s issues run deep, and it can’t be up to Sam (or any other one person) to be the answer to all of Dean’s problems. Dean needs to face his issues, and putting it all on Sam would intensify, rather than diffuse, the destructiveness of the co-dependency in the relationship.

Is hunting the problem?

With a gradual shift over the series to more sympathetic monsters, the ethics around hunting became grayer. The blurring of the definition of “monster” has opened up Dean to becoming friends with a vampire and letting Garth walk away as a werewolf, but it’s also led to his view of hunting slowly transform into “killing.” Does Dean need to walk away from hunting to find peace? Can he walk away from hunting?

Does Dean need a redemption arc?

I’m not suggesting here that I think Dean deserves to be punished, but redemption arcs are more often not about punishment or even making things right, so much as they are about giving peace to the protagonist who is feeling overwhelming guilt.  These are issues that Dean’s been dealing with for a long time now and seem to be progressively getting worse.

It was hinted at by Charlie that Dean needs to learn to forgive himself. While this is certainly a first step – especially around things that were clearly not Dean’s fault (such as Jo deciding to become a hunter as was suggested in season 7) - this isn’t so simple. Dean’s guilt over things he had no control over (Mary’s and John’s deaths) have become blended in his mind with consequences from decisions that he does have more control over – such as agreeing to let Gadreel possess Sam and then agreeing to lie to Sam about it. If Dean is unable to distinguish between things that he has no control over and his mistakes (choices that he did have control over), then he is going to continue to feel cursed, or to use his words, like he’s “poison.”

I’m reminded of a couple of parts of the Alcohol Anonymous 12-step program that seem relevant here. One is the reciting of the Serenity Prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” The other is asking forgiveness from those you have wronged. By claiming responsibility for everything, all of this guilt gets jumbled into one big mess that is too big to face. As a result, nothing is changing. He would start to feel a lot better if he broke his guilt down into more manageable parts and took steps to make amends for pieces where he can.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Feel free to speculate on other parts of the MoC storyline too that I didn’t address here.