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'Supernatural's' Ben Edlund: Castiel's betrayal 'is going to hurt Dean deeply'
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After six years of "Supernatural," we thought we'd seen it all, but when Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) killed the Mother of All in last week's episode, we were shocked. After all, if they kill the big bad in Episode 19, what is there to do in episodes 20, 21, and 22? Sit around and pat each other on the back? Unfortunately for the brothers Winchester, three episodes of celebratory air guitar wasn't in the cards. In the final scene of last week's episode, we learned that the Mother of All was the least of their worries. The angel on their shoulders, Castiel (Misha Collins), had teamed up with the King of Hell, Crowley (Mark Sheppard), who they'd presumed dead.
Life's just not fair sometimes.
This week's episode, "The Man Who Would Be King," was written and directed by producer Ben Edlund - it's his "Supernatural" directing debut, though he's been with the show since Season 2. We were having some trouble wrapping our head around Castiel-as-bad-guy, so we spoke to Ben to see if he could set the record straight on where Cas straddles that line between good and evil.
"The real driving catalyst, the reason why more bad has happened to good people on 'Supernatural' this year than any other year, does not come directly through the Mother of All monsters," Edlund tells Zap2it. "She's badass, and she does bad things, but it's this partnership between the angel and the demon that has driven most of our conflicts. It's all because of Crowley and Castiel."
Who knew that our friendly neighborhood angel baby-in-a-trenchcoat was capable of such deceit and destruction?
Dean Winchester certainly didn't. This Friday's episode serves as a shocking wake up call to Dean, especially given the fact that he's finally back on track with his brother, as he learns the extent of Castiel's betrayal. The hits just keep on coming for Dean, and this time, it's likely worse than you think.
"He won't like it. Familial betrayal is his kryptonite, so to speak. It's his thing. It's the thing he hates worse than any other thing, and he has brought Cas into the family, so the math there has a clear outcome. It's going to hurt him deeply even to discover what we understand to be the case right now, which is that Cas is capable of working with a demon. Even that is going to be so painful. It's going to be a hard week for that good-looking bastard."
We asked Edlund whether the writers hesitated to explore Castiel's dark side, given his tendency to lend humor to the show. "I had my hesitations," he admits, "because I like the fish-out-of-water, dumb jokes, and I like Cas. I like the thing on camera that Misha created that complemented this new strain of creature, this angel coming into our world and gave a body and character to it. That's a really great thing. But one of the rules of 'Supernatural' is loss, and losing things. You have to love something before you can feel its loss."
Well... that sounds ominous.
Tune into "Supernatural" this Friday night at 9 p.m. EST on The CW, and check back in with Zap2it later this week for more "Supernatural" dish from Edlund.
In the meantime, weigh in below in our comments section. Do you see Castiel as a viable villain? How do you think this will play out?
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Photo/Video credit: The CW
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"But one of the rules of 'Supernatural' is loss, and losing things. You have to love something before you can feel its loss." No no no no no pleaseee!! Don't take Cass away from us! It would be the worst loss ever! He's our little angel, who risked his life over and over and over again for Winchesters, who gave up on everything for them. And now, suddenly, he will turn evil?? He'll work against them? He'll be their enemy? I can't take that, seriously. This is too much. Even for supernatural.
As much as I love Cas, I am excited about this arc for him. We can trust Supernatural not to flip-flop a character to the dark side without a complex tangle of reasons. Even S4 Sam thought he was doing the right thing drinking demon blood. These arcs add depth and believability to the characters--and the actors are more than capable of pulling it off, too. I can't wait to see what has brought Castiel to this point. And some Dean-angst is just icing on the cake!
If Cas dies, especially if Cas dies as a villain, I'm gone. Done.
That's it.
I like that Cas and Dean will start to be more open emotionally with each other, but it sucks that he has to become evil for it to happen.
FYI, they kill off Cas, I WILL be on the writers *****.
With pitchforks.
I'm gonna go to fangirl hell for this, but:
Bring it, Edlund. Make him dark. Make him fight with the boys. Make him morally gray in a way that would put HRG from Heroes to shame. Make me cry and shake with anger and feel betrayed.
JUST DON'T KILL HIM PLEASE. And eventually, bring him back to the people you've finally acknowledged are HIS FAMILY.
Oh Cas!!! What are you doing to Dean? *sniff*
The angst is gonna be off the charts. I can't wait. But man, I hope they get to make up by the end of the season.
*sigh*. If Cas is to betray Dean, I hope season seven will have Dean and Cas working through this and becoming stronger in their relationship. Cas is the only true, loyal friend that Dean has so far, so of course, the show has to destroy it so that Dean is left with fickle Sam and fair weather friend Bobby. Whatever show.
If the Dean and Cas profound bond is broken and Dean is left with only Sam again, I'm otta here.
Yeah, that's right. Promise to leave a show for a character who didn't show up until the fourth year in. Let's completely and totally forget about the two main characters that have been there since day one. Talk about fair weather.
I'm mildly excited for these turn of events. One-note, awkward, angel!Cas has about bored me to tears for the past two seasons. I love that they are finally adding some dimension for his character to stretch his wings so to speak. Now if they kill him completely, the writers will have my undying love.
Wow...there seems to be some mutiny among the ranks!
Okay, I see it as this. Cas has gone through some profound changes throughout his arc on the show. I think he, like other angels, has the capacity to be bad/evil/misinformed/whatever as much as any other angel does. With his new fight against Raphael for control of heaven, he's probably having to make some tough choices, because from what we've seen (through Castiel's POV) the fight isn't necessarily going his way.
I will say that I applaud the writers for taking the squeaky clean angel!baby and tarnishing it a bit. It shows character evolution and depth, and I think Misha Collins is doing an awesome job. I will also say that the writers of Supernatural have thrown us for whollops before, and always left us with understanding why they did what they did and making it an even better show for it. So I have to trust TPTB in that they won't let us down, because they haven't in the past, in my opinion.