Supernatural executive producer Jeremy Carver and star Jensen Ackles discuss what fans can expect as season 9 heads into its final stretch.
The ninth season of Supernatural has revolved around a controversial rift between the Winchester brothers, as Dean tricked Sam into allowing an angel to possess him. And while the brothers have continued working together on a professional level, their personal relationship is in shambles.
Tonight’s episode, “Blade Runners,” is set to be a First Blade-centric episode, as the brothers reconnect with Crowley, who was supposed to be on the hunt for the blade.
“What’s interesting about this episode is you’re going to see Dean come in contact with The First Blade for the first time. The story of the Mark of Cain and The First Blade will take off from there,” Carver tells TVLine.
The Winchester ‘cold war’
According to Carver, the biggest issue right now “is that our boys are in a bit of a cold war here. They’re both smarting from some emotional attacks they’ve taken on each other. At the moment, neither is really willing to budge.”
However, this rift, while painful for many fans to watch, has allowed the writers to explore some new facets of the characters. “The boys, for nine years, have been pretty much inseparable in that it’s always about each other,” Carver says.
But this season, the writers have started “putting them in more instances of not just being alone, but with other people in their world,” such as Dean with Crowley and Sam with Castiel.
But, just because things look bleak for the brothers now, it doesn’t mean there is no hope. “These brothers can say things that cut very deep, but at the end of the day, you drill down far enough through the scar tissue, you’ve got two guys who do want to reach out to each other,” Carver says.
It becomes a question of “who’s going to make the first move? Or what’s it going to take for that bridge to be crossed again? The bond of their relationship is even deeper than either of them would actually believe.”
Men of Letters
Meanwhile, upcoming episodes will also be digging into the Men of Letters lore. “Blade Runners” will “dive into a whole side of it that has essentially been secret until now,” Carver previews. “We’re going to get a real, hard look at the different types of people who were in the Men of Letters” as well as “meet a real interesting character.”
And in next week’s episode, “we’re going to take a peek into the Men of Letters through the eyes of some folks we’ve already introduced, namely Henry Winchester and his colleague Josie,” who Abaddon eventually possessed.
Castiel’s arc
As for Castiel, the last we saw of him, he had gathered a following after killing Bartholomew. “What he wants most of all is to be a solider in this fight to take back Heaven,” Caver explains.
“What a soldier means, he’s constantly re-examining that because he doesn’t want to fight the same way Bartholomew wanted to fight. He doesn’t want to kill angels in the way they’ve been killed.
“And he’s not certain he’s a leader, either,” Carver adds. “This is a guy who has done, arguably, more harm to angels than good and a guy who’s severely aware of his own limitations. This idea that angels might want to follow him, it’s a very, very heavy burden for him to grapple with.”
Mark of Cain
In terms of what the Mark of Cain is doing to Dean, Ackles tells EW, “I think Dean’s becoming less compassionate. He’s becoming a little bit more primal in his dealings with good and bad. He’s becoming a little bit more tunnel vision, and he’s getting really really amped up very quickly.
“You might want to say it’s almost like Dean’s putting on blinders and taking steroids. So it’s a dangerous combo.”
For instance, in the last episode, “Thinman,” we saw Dean kill a human who was behind a series of murders. “Normally, he might just chain the guy to a pipe because he’s not an actual monster, he’s a real guy, or turn him over to the authorities or let real people handle real people. He’s not in the business to do that; he’s in the business of hunting and killing monsters,” Ackles says.
As a result, “his judgment and his moral compass, it’s a little askew. He doesn’t have a problem with offing anybody that stands in his way, anybody that’s doing bad. He’s become very cut and dry, and cut and dry doesn’t necessarily mean right and wrong. It’s a tricky line, and he’s having a little trouble navigating it, I think.”
Forgiveness
Meanwhile, the show has been exploring the idea of what can and cannot be forgiven. The question for Sam — and even Dean himself — is whether Dean can be forgiven. “[S]omething that he’s been struggling with all season is what he decided to do for Sam at the beginning of the season, which was trick Sam into allowing this angel to occupy his body,” Ackles says.
“Obviously, Dean was tricked as well, which spun the whole thing. In fact, I kind of joked with Jared [Padalecki], I think [that] episode 10 this season was actually the first time that we saw the real Sam, because all nine episodes leading up to that it was somebody else speaking for Sam, so that’s been a real jagged pill for Dean to swallow.”
He adds, “Whether or not Sam is able to forgive and forget is to be seen. I’m not sure that Dean is counting on it, which is another log on the fire of his dilemma of everything else is just kind of a means to an end.”
Supernatural airs Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. ET on The CW.
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