MEET THE NEW BOSS:

THE TREATMENT OF THE JUDEO-CHRISTIAN GOD AND OTHER CHRISTIAN ELEMENTS IN SUPERNATURAL.

 

“Carry on my wayward son,

There’ll be peace when you are done,

Lay your weary head to rest,

Don’t you cry no more.”

-Kansas, Carry On Wayward Son

 

Be it the blaring music of the radio in their ’67 Impala, the advice of their father, John Winchester, or the divine instructions of God himself, these words could arguably be thought of as the resounding motto of the lives of Sam and Dean Winchester, as well as the rest of humankind, whom Christianity perceives as the sons (or daughters) of God. Unfortunately or fortunately for the Supernatural universe, it remains unfulfilled, for this is a world where God is “just another deadbeat dad with a bunch of excuses”, where an Angel of the Lord calls his Father a “son of a bitch”, and where God shall not make the effort to wipe away the tears of his “wayward son” or even grant him the eternal respite that comes with death. The Supernatural God is an entity unlike what has been seen or what we want to see and with this distortion (if that’s what we should call it) comes an alteration or an inversion of Judeo-Christian theology which forms the overarching theme of the cult CW show, Supernatural.

 

It is through the Winchesters’ eyes that the show establishes its perspective on God and Christianity in general, and with every new season their viewpoint is either altered or developed further. Season one, for instance, doesn’t have much to do with God. It does, however, bring up the question of faith. Sam believes in God, while his older brother, Dean believes only in evil. One must consider the fact that Sam’s faith, like most of ours, may just be a matter of convenience- in the face of vampires and werewolves, wendigos and shapeshifters, ghosts and demons, a twenty two year old with nothing called family has to believe in something good to keep him sane. Moreover, in 1.12, “Faith”, when Dean is on his deathbed, it is a faith healer and consequently God’s grace that Sam resorts to so as to save his brother. However, the healing powers of the blind Reverend are revealed to be a sham- his wife literally puts a Grim Reaper on leash and exchanges one death for another. Although Dean is saved, the belief or at least faith in God is negated. At least the Grim Reaper is just- he takes one life only when he is denied another.

 

Season two treats God just as the real world does. His presence or absence doesn’t matter much; an abstract belief in God is enough to sustain faith in the faithful. There does come a time in 2.13, ‘Houses of the Holy’, when Sam is confronted by the possibility of the existence of Angels, of “God’s will”. However, the angel turns out to be the ghost of a dead priest who thought he was protecting the townspeople by instigating not-so-pious folk to kill people whom he believed to be evil. Can Dean’s words really be countered when he says, “There’s no higher power. There’s no God. There’s just chaos and violence and random, unpredictable evil that comes out of nowhere and rips you to shreds.”; unless it is through his selfsame acceptance of the possibility that “God’s will” may as well be real, not unlike the beliefs of just another ordinary and confused person? The Devil, on the other hand, surely exists- the Faustian deal that Dean makes in order to bring Sam back to life ensures that we believe in him. Season three is much the same.

 

With the arrival of angels, season four adopts an entirely new take on God. The season premiere, in fact, is called “Lazarus Rising”, automatically introducing the idea of a confirmed presence of a higher power which brings Dean back from Hell. Lazarus is brought back to life by Christ, while Dean is resurrected by “an angel of the Lord”, Castiel. To the Winchesters, God is the literal Boss who pulls the strings and is consequently a figure who can right all wrongs. Dean doubts that “there’s a God out there that actually gives a crap about me”. However, it does not keep him from asking the eternally unsettling question, even if it is through a popular culture reference- ‘Are you there, God? It’s me, Dean Winchester.’ which serves as the title for 4.02. God goes from abstract to concrete, developing into an entity one can actually believe in for the sake of all good in the world.

 

The season finale is called ‘Lucifer Rising’, remarkably similar to the title of the very first episode mentioned above. The latter had only served to reinforce the existence of a God, a possibly benevolent one in the universe of the show and thus one may automatically conclude that the former wants to reiterate the existence of the Devil as more than just horns and a tail; as that of the bright and beautiful King of Hell, the ‘Creator’ of demons, Lucifer. It is in season five that the show constructs the Christian God as we learn to see him through the eyes of the Supernatural makers- almost human, erring and indifferent. The search for God in 5.02, ‘Good God, Y’all’, is hilarious in its hopelessness-

 

Castiel: He’s isn’t in Heaven.

He has to be somewhere.

Dean: Try New Mexico. I hear he’s on a tortilla.

Castiel: No, he’s not on any flatbread.

 

(5.02. ‘Good God, Y’all.’)

 

Castiel searches for God because he still believes in his Father, but his quest yields only despair. It is ultimately Joshua, an angel who converses with God, who reveals the harsh truth- “He knows what the angels are doing. He knows that the Apocalypse has begun. He just doesn’t think it’s his problem.” It is this season that establishes God as a dominant character who is conspicuous in his absence. The season finale, 5.22, ‘Swan Song’, wherein Sam while being possessed by the Devil jumps into Lucifer’s cage so as to trap him there, shows a renewal of faith in Castiel for he was brought back to life by God, and he believed that it was for a specific reason, “the right thing to do”. However, Castiel’s statement does nothing to convince either Dean or the small but dedicated audience that the show has, that God cares or ever will.

 

The Christian God adopts a new form on the show in its sixth season- that of Castiel.

 

Humankind did not kill God. Neither did angels. He left Heaven, comfortably creating a metaphorical death for himself, possibly because he was too tired of his own creations. We need not imagine the corpse of a larger than life figure. The image of a bearded man, sunbathing in the Bahamas while sipping a Pina Colada shall suffice to convey his death. Castiel, however, takes on personal responsibility for the loss of God and becomes one himself. He absorbs human souls from Purgatory into himself so as to create God out of himself by using their energy, and ironically makes a deal with the new King of Hell, Crowley to achieve what he wants. What one must note is the fact that Castiel embodies the Old Testament God. He demands obedience and any transgression (not sexual, as he makes abundantly clear) is seen as deserving of punishment- He is extremely different from the manner in which Supernatural has portrayed God up to this point- not indifferent, but the true, megalomaniac tyrant as suggested by the title of 7.01, ‘Meet the New Boss’. However, he is eventually consumed by the Leviathans within his body (he absorbed them along with human souls), and there is a return to status quo.

 

When discussing God, the construction of Heaven becomes supremely important.

 

Ash: See, you gotta stop thinking of Heaven as one place. It’s more like a buttload of places all crammed together. Like Disneyland, except without all the Anti-Semitism.

Sam: Disneyland?

Ash: Mmm..hmm. See, you got Winchester-land, Ash-land, a whole mess of everybody-else-lands. Put ‘em all together; Heaven, right? At the centre of it all, is the magic Kingdom- the garden.

 

(5.16, ‘Dark Side of the Moon’)

 

Dean’s heaven which contains mostly childhood memories of his family and Sam’s heaven, which is a collection of all the times when he thought he was free, collide in what Ash quite significantly refers to as “Winchester-land”. However, it is Heaven as a battlefield that one is required to examine. Paradise transforms from something as beautiful as “the eternal Tuesday afternoon of an Autistic man who drowned in a bathtub in 1953” to an ugly, blood spattered ‘garden’- a site for an angelic civil war, betrayal and deaths. In the ‘Battlefield of Eden’, is there any place for those who want and deserve Paradise?

 

Supernatural’s greatest didactic message, perhaps, lies in its construction of human beings. Among angels, demons, the Devil and God, a puny, occasionally vacillating, sometimes steadfast figure is visible. This is the weak and yet powerful figure of humanity. None of the horsemen are required to do much to cause chaos- just push a few men over the edge. Demons find it as easy to manipulate human beings to suit their own needs. However, we are not beyond redemption. Flaws exist, but Supernatural ensures that in the battle of Good versus Evil, it is humanity who wins, and it is ultimately humankind who has the most to gain and to lose.

 

Supernatural deals intensely with the Calvinistic idea of free will versus predestination. Calvin says, “Predestination, we call the eternal decree of God, by which He hath determined in Himself what He would have to become of every individual of mankind. For they are not all created with a similar destiny; but eternal life is foreordained for some, eternal damnation for others.” The show does not give its characters a choice between life and death or Heaven and Hell. Dean appears to exercise free will when he sells his soul to the Devil, so as to bring Sam back to life, in 2.22, ‘All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 2’. However, considering their unhealthily co-dependent upbringing, as well as an exposure to such a deal (John makes a deal with Azazel to save his son, Dean’s life in 2.01, ‘In my time of Dying’.), did he really have an option? Doctor Faustus comes to mind. Did Faustus really have the scope to make a choice? Wasn’t he predestined to Hell because it was the Devil who rode him? Would he have gone to Hell, despite his repeated attempts at redemption, had his destiny not decreed so?

 

Celestial parallels are often drawn between the Winchester family and the Heavenly family that consists of God and the angels- An ‘absent father’ is the dominant aspect of both families- neither John Winchester nor God can be called good fathers. Both neglect their children. God first spoils one of his sons, Lucifer, and loves him above all the rest and later, when he rebels, casts him down unceremoniously. John, too, casts out his beloved son, Sam, when he chooses the promise of the normal ‘apple pie life’ complete with its ‘white picket fence and 2.5 kids’.

 

What is very interesting is the fact that Sam and Dean’s mother is called Mary. Although one may be quite hesitant to relate her to Virgin Mary, it shall not be entirely incongruous to do so. As a mother, she is always seen dressed in pure and chaste white. When Sam and Dean, who barely remember her, discover that she was a hunter, they are shocked. She is placed on a pedestal by her sons and turned into an object of worshipful obsession by John, and plays a part in almost every arc of the show. However, her virginal image is inverted by Zachariah when he touches her “blessed memory” inappropriately so as to taunt Sam and Dean. Nevertheless, her faith in the divine- “Angels are watching over us” as well as the reverence which Sam and Dean show her, associates her with the Madonna to a great degree.

 

The question of God does not arise in Supernatural merely within the show’s universe but also as an aspect of the intertextuality that the show thrives on. The show introduces the prophet Chuck Shurley who writes a poorly selling book series called Supernatural. The series follows the lives of two brothers named Sam and Dean, who hunt things that go “bump in the night”.. When the real Sam and Dean, whose lives are being read about voyeuristically by people, find out about the series, in 4.18, ‘The Monster at the End of the Book’, they confront the writer, and after Castiel’s clarifications, it is revealed that he is a “prophet of the Lord”. However, fan speculations as well as the canon itself suggest that Chuck might be God. He himself says in 4.18- “Well, there's only one explanation. Obviously I'm a god... I'm definitely a god. A cruel, cruel, capricious god.” It is perhaps his dissolving into air at the end of 5.22, ‘Swan Song’, which has caused fans and critics to think in such a manner. In fact, he appears to have some sort of an erotic relationship with a woman named Mistress Magda, a name quite similar to that of Mary Magdalene, often speculated to be Christ’s consort. Moreover, Castiel declares, and quite hilariously so, that one day the Supernatural books shall come to be known as the “Winchester Gospels”.

 

A fan, Lisa Schmidt, says “This is a world where Death can enjoy a pizza, where Satan has ,to take out other gods with his fists, and magic guns can kill the most powerful beings in the universe. It’s a world where heaven is just another place and god is just another creature. And he happens to be ordinary and fallible, a sloppy, kind of cowardly, trashy novelist!” A question that has risen in most people’s minds, and one that has never been answered, is whether Sam and Dean Winchester are Catholic or Protestant. In the absence of any clarification, one might just say that they have their own brand of Christianity wherein demons have a sense of humour, angels are puppets whose worldly knowledge is limited to pressing buttons on a cellphone, God isn’t sacred, and the Devil is a little brother throwing a tantrum.

 

~ SNIGDHA TALAPATRA