Supernatural is the story of the Winchester Brothers and their quest to rid the world of Demons, Ghosts, and the Like by being professional Hunters. Professional meaning they do it full time, not that they get paid for risking their lives week in and week out. But of course, these are not just your average Hunters, these are Special Hunters. Sam seems to be something along the lines of the Angel Gabriel in that he will be the one who sounds the end of the earth. This is not a good thing for those us who are still busy using the Earth at the moment. So Sam’s brother Dean makes a deal with a demon, or the Devil or someone and trades his soul to keep Sam from bringing about the end of the world. At least, that’s how I remember it.
During one of the more inspired moment on Buffy The Vampire Slayer-Buffy died and all of her friends assumed that she was burning in some hell somewhere, as Angel was often burning in Hell. But Buffy was a Force for Good and she had gone to Heaven instead. So Buffy was not all that happy when he Scoobie Gang brought he back to life.
In the season opener of Supernatural, Sam is yanked out of Hell by Something. A powerful something that left deep burn scars on his shoulders. As the story progresses Sam meets up with people who think he is a Demon and want to kill him. They are happy when they find out he is not a demon. But he seems to be haunted by whatever powerful demon it is that brought him out of the depths of hell.
At the end of the show, the demon shows himself, and he is not a demon, He is An Angle of The Lord. Which Sam says is impossible, as there is no such thing. Which would kind of be like Captain Kirk saying he can’t use the Transporter as there is no such thing.
Ok, our world is a cold and scientific place. We understand a lot now that passed for magic and miracles in the good old days. We don’t blame gremlins for mechanical failure and we don’t blame little people for eating out bread in the night. But Sam Winchester lives in a world where demons and ghosts and magic in all kinds of manifestations are everyday events. You can say you don’t believe in electricity until you are struck by lighting-then you believe. You may not understand it, but you know it is real. So if I lived in a world were demons walk and miracles happened-I saw then everyday, I would be a Believer. So why isn’t Sam?
Sam’s doubts are an odd bit of business. He regularly uses Holy Water to fight off the demons and the undead and the assorted badies the show whips up. If there was no God, or no Holiness, then Holy water would hold no more power than tap water. The Wife make this observation, as I tend not to pay that much attention. But yeah, Holy Water plays a large part in most monster stories. As do crosses-nothing more that pretty objects without a god-and the like.
The Anita Blake stories are also set in a world where vampires and monsters of one kind or another roam the streets, and yet Anita runs into the occasional Unbeliever. This is baffling in the extreme. Our world has no proof of God and a lot is made of the Evidence of Things Unseen. So what does that mean in a world where the Evidence is Seen? Should Sam believe because of what he sees, or use Logic to prove that there is no God because he has seen Proof that there is God? He runs the risk of getting run over at a zebra crossing that way.
In a recent episode of Supernatural Sam travels back in time and is instrumental in getting his grandparents killed and sealing the deal his mother makes with the yellow eyed demon. It is implied that the demon would not have noticed Sam’s mother if Sam had not been there. The ‘Angel’ in the present tells him that he can’t change destiny-and the very next thing he says is to go get Dean to stop what he is doing-so they can change destiny. The trouble with time travel is that it brings to light the little inconvience that our Now will soon enough be our Past. If you can’t alter the Past, you can’t alter the Present either. Wasn’t the Devil an angel of the lord?
So Supernatural has set its foot on the serious path of Armageddon and the Raising of Lucifer and The End of Times. I didn’t believe that Arnold could stop the end of the world in End of Days- and I don’t believe that the Winchester boys can either. But I have every faith that they will. After all, Buffy managed to save the world every year, so why can’t Sam and Dean?
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