Saturday, February 25, 2017

Mary Campbell & John Winchester Analysis

It's obvious that John and Mary are an adorable couple.  I mean how could a pairing that produced puppydog-turned-Moose Sam and BAMF Squirrel Dean not be incredible? 






And despite the fact that both Mary and John Winchester were only alive together for a matter of minutes in the first episode, their legend lives on throughout the series.  Throughout the years, Sam and Dean exist as proof to their undying love…or do they?



In Season 4, as the world is tearing to shreds and the apocalypse is nigh, Castiel begins to wonder at the use for Sam’s demon-blood-powered abilities.  He sends Dean back in time in order to determine Azazel’s ultimate purpose behind Sam.  During his visit to the past, Dean meets his mother, Mary, and father, John, as well as his grandparents, Mary’s folks, the Campbell family.  This all takes place circa 1973, before John and Mary decided to get married.  We are able to witness the deal Mary makes with Azazel (dressed up for Halloween as her father, Samuel Campbell) in order to save John.  She is given the option of reviving John, but her parents, both of whom are dead by Azazel’s hands, aren’t on the table.  John represents for Mary a life without hunting, without monsters and demons and ghosts and evil entities.  She makes the deal with Azazel to save John’s life and they live happily ever after…or maybe not.

In Season 5, we get a larger glimpse into the behind-the-scenes of John Winchester and Mary Campbell’s love life. In 5.13, The Song Remains the Same, Castiel once again sends Dean and this time Sam back in time to the year 1978.  An angel called Anna has gone back in time herself with the purpose of murdering Mary and John in order to prevent Sam from being born.  Sam and Dean do their best to save their parents from Anna without giving too much away, but finally, they tell Mary who they really are.  Dean and Sam decide that Mary should just leave John, and that it’s better to never have been born than to be born and die violently.  Mary, however, explains that she cannot leave John as she is already pregnant with Dean.  Michael appears to John, and he says the fated word “yes”.  Wearing John’s meatsuit, Michael kills Anna and sends Uriel back “home” (aka Heaven).  He erases John and Mary’s memories of the day so that Dean and Sam both wind up being born.

At this point in the series, it is apparent that the angels are torn, some determined to ensure Sam dies and others determined to ensure that both boys are born.  We see more of this in 5.14, My Bloody Valentine, wherein the boys and Cas meet a cupid believing that he is causing the deaths of couples in the area.  When they meet the cupid, he elaborates his basic job duties: as a lower-class angel (a cherub), the cupid receives orders from Heaven to mark certain people to essentially become soul mates.  The cupid mentions that Heaven usually doesn’t care whether or not one person falls in love with another, except when the resulting bloodline benefits them.

Then, he mentions that Mary and John were marked by a cupid:



The cupid mentions that it wasn’t easy to get Mary and John together, but once they were done, they were the perfect couple.  He says “The orders were very clear.  You and Sam needed to be born.”  This one conversation very simply implies that Mary and John may not have loved each other separately of themselves, and were only together because Heaven wanted Sam and Dean to be born.

Two episodes later, in 5.16, Dark Side of the Moon, we get a glimpse into Dean’s memory when the boys are shot dead (again) in their rooms.  (Side note: One of my favorite quotes comes from this episode, Dean’s “Go ahead, Roy. Do it.  But I’m gonna warn you, when I come back, I’m gonna be pissed.”  I just love that he KNOWS he will be back.  Cracks me up.  Anyway, back to John and Mary…)  Sam and Dean wake up separately in heaven amidst their favorite memories.  They find each other and wind up in one of Dean’s favorite memories, wherein he is four years old, and Mary is making him lunch.  The boys overhear Mary’s side of an argument between her and John over the phone.  The couple had been fighting and John decided to move out for a couple of days.  Despite the fact that John always told the boys that he and Mary had the perfect marriage, Dean responds that “It wasn’t perfect until after she died.”  It’s even more apparent now that Mary and John were only meant to be in that they were meant to have Sam and Dean.

Finally, in episode 8.12, As Time Goes By, it’s revealed that the Winchester bloodline is littered with Men of Letters, the brainy version of Hunters.  In episode 4.03, we had learned that the Campbell bloodline was full of Hunters, who are known for being tough and brawny rather than brainy.  It is this episode that makes known exactly what the cupid meant in 5.14 about why the Campbells and Winchesters had to breed: San and Dean needed to be born because they would be the perfect Hunter/Men of Letters combination.  Sam and Dean are the brains and the brawn of the supernatural world.


In essence, John and Mary are not some incredible couple that would survive all odds, they were dictated by Heaven to fall in love due to specific traits their bloodline carried.  Basically, Heaven played God and pulled a bit of selective breeding.  How rude!

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please drop them below.

Ever your Assbutt,

Castielle


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