Supernatural - Episode 4.02 “Are You There God? It’s Me, Dean Winchester”
Part 1 of The Good Soldiers
Part 2 of The Good Soldiers

Why Me? I’m Just a Regular Guy
Let’s see, Dean excels at stealing, lying, and womanizing, so that sounds like a regular guy. Sure there’s the dying over 100 times (and counting), the mad demon hunting skills and the fireman-like desire to help people despite the personal costs. Maybe he’s a little more than a regular guy.

Dean’s path to supernatural soldier is almost inevitable. He’s been a child of war since his mother was killed and John Winchester’s obsession with hunting the Yellow Eyed Demon began. The Ex-Marine programmed his sons like soldiers when he trained them to hunt evil. John apologized to Dean just before he died that he acted more like a drill sergeant than a father.

Dean’s childhood was taken away by John’s choices and absences. Dean carried a large responsibility for caring for his brother. He tried to protect Sam’s childhood innocence as long as he could, with little success. Dean had few options though. He chose to roll with it; to accept their family life for what it was. John rewarded Dean’s accepting attitude and obedience. That attitude IS why he always got the extra cookie. And why disappointing John was the worst kind of failure. Sam was trained like a soldier too. But Sam rebelled. He looks on their childhood as lacking. Sam does not recall it fondly (remember that very special Christmas?). He thinks his family is cursed. Dean rejects this idea.

Dean’s definition of being a good son, or a good soldier, since John equated those two roles for Dean at age 4, meant he followed orders even when he didn’t like or agree with them. Sam did not take John’s orders without explanations. Sam viewed Dean as caving in to John’s orders blindly. Dean viewed Sam’s stubborn independence as selfish. This resentment between them is the reason Sam and Dean fought and went their separate ways in the episode Scarecrow.

Dean deferred to John’s authority for most of his life. After John died, Dean began questioning and thinking for himself. After his Deal and the run-up to his death, Dean broke out of his old thinking by confronting how he got where he was, and then took responsibility for his choices.

I Can Roll With That
If Dean gets 100% sure he’s on a mission from God, he still may not equate the definition of God’s Soldier with John’s requirements of a Good Son-Soldier. He might not just follow orders. Dean doesn’t need God like he needed John’s love and approval as a boy. Dean thinks God’s got a lousy track record for helping the poor bastards down here. So maybe he won’t fall in line quite so fast.

Good soldiers can and should think for themselves and question orders at times. Dissent is patriotic; even virtuous. Dean believes in doing what’s right and trying to do good works, irrespective of his ninety or one hundred percent certainties in God. Maybe that’s why God wants him - Dean’s a free agent.

Well, mostly free. Fear of hell is a huge factor motivating Dean too, though he doesn’t realize it. He doesn’t recall the pain of hell, yet. Dean’s certain he does not want to go back - no way, no how. Since Castiel pulled him from hell, Dean does need to take a more thankful and compliant view of his liberator.

Will Dean cave to Castiel to avoid hell? What if Castiel asks him to do something bad or wrong? Or something that makes Dean appear crazy? God does like to make His Chosen Ones dress funny (remember Evan Almighty?). If Castiel’s plans to stop Lucifer line up with Dean’s view of doing what’s right, then he’ll probably get on board and surrender to the duty.

Bad Crap Happens to Good People
Compliant or kicking, God will probably get what He wants from Dean even if Dean doesn’t think He deserves obedience. God and Castiel may just demand Dean comply based on their frightening power (though that throws cold water on that free will idea). Dean showed fear of Castiel’s power. Sam said he’s not afraid of angels, but he hasn’t met Castiel. Perhaps Ruby’s fears should be Sam’s fears.

Sam has faith though he arguably has lost more than Dean in the last three years (Jess, Dad, and Dean gone for four months). Faith is maybe something Sam’s holding onto, without fully considering the consequences of that obligation. Dean has been thinking things through. He’s figuring out that Psychic Pam was right. He did go from the fire, but not back into the pan. He’s into a much bigger fire.

Strap on Your Party Hat
Angels haven’t contacted humans in 2,000 years according to Castiel. What are their operating rules? In the war between Hell and Heaven, the outcome may not come down to which apocrypha to read but instead which war history to find the strategy and tactics. Has Castiel been reading the jus in bello handbook?

Say he’s a little more medieval with his methods. What if Castiel decides to motivate Dean by lifting the covers off his hell memories? That might muzzle Dean from backtalk and foster compliance. Michael Landon or Roma Downey definitely wouldn’t do that to keep Dean interested. But an angelic soldier fighting a global war on evil might be less concerned.

Hunters may be God’s everyday frontline warriors against evil on earth. As trained insiders, they can be called up for the deep cover and black ops missions. What if Sam and Dean are like cell leaders operating on different missions? Both have roles that fall into the overall war strategy of God and His angels, but nobody sees the whole picture. Each may see the battlefield differently. Is Dean a conscript for God? Or less heartening, an indentured servant obliged to Castiel since he pulled Dean out of Hell?

What if Team God wants Sam to be a sacrifice too? Ruby told Dean that Sam had a ‘bomb inside him’. Maybe the faithful Sam, who prays, can be convinced to use his powers to ‘explode’ if he thinks he’s doing something good (even though it may not be right). Maybe Sam’s path is to go dark as the inside man to sabotage Team Evil. Is Castiel oblivious to what Sam is doing with Ruby? Rabid Meg knew. Is Castiel watching Sam going down a dark path, using Sam in that ‘bigger picture’?

Losing Dean to hell was the final straw to push Sam to experiment and embrace his powers. But will Sam turn evil by using them or unwiitingly do Lucifer’s bidding? The outcome is unclear. Dean fears these powers, and Ruby’s influence as Sam’s Yoda. It’s likely these powers could corrupt Sam, based on the other PsyKids. Except Andy. Plus Sam has Dean. Dean did save Sam once already. He restored Sam’s life. Perhaps Dean still has to help save Sam’s soul.

Dean always comes back to the same solution when facing overwhelming odds: stand and fight. The one person Dean will fight for more than anyone or anything is Sam. Maybe God needs that soldier – the one who will never give up on Sam… say because Sam will need that safety net to pull him back from the ledge of Mount Doom’s lava river.

Sam was spiked with supernatural power that can be manipulated. Maybe Dean is the equally powerful human force. Together Sam and Dean balance each other. Push either one too far out and the pendulum pull draws the other back. Each time one pushes further, the stronger the counterforce to bring the pendulum back the other way.

On the day Dean went to hell, he told Sam they should fight the way John taught them – the human way. It’s better to lose the human way than to win the demon way. What about winning the angel way? Angels haven’t been up close and hands on with humans in 2,000 years. Humans don’t know what these beings are about. Will the angels playing as ruthlessly with the humans as demons? Maybe angels cause as much pain, suffering and loss as demons.

Semper Fidelis
Just before midnight struck and Dean was torn apart by the hell hound, Sam asked Dean what he should do. Dean told him to keep fighting. That’s the soldier’s code – never give up. No surrender. That attitude does not often lead to a happy ending. Rufus, the retired hunter, told Dean they all have it coming. They do.

The awful truth is that sacrifices are necessary in a fight between evil and good. Some will pay a lot more than their fair share. Innocent sons get caught in cataclysmic events. There are choices along the way, but the ending is nearly inevitable. Decisions have life and death consequences. I’m sorry.

The “good vs evil fight” is never over unless the fighting stops - which means the world ends. Are humans better off dead and the world ends, or better off alive and the world continues, accepting the responsibility of constant vigilance to fight evil? Maybe evil just needs to be contained, since evil cannot be destroyed without destroying good and all existence. Either way, there is no running from the accountability and responsibility of the choices humans make.

So, yeah, it is Apocalypse Now. That’s basically any other day in the supernatural life of the Winchesters. Cue the latinating and the holy water boarding.