Some Sympathy For The Devil?

SUPERNATURAL, SEASON 5 (DVD)

Release Date: Oct 18th, 2010
Certificate: 15

Created by: Eric Kripke

Cast: Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Jim Beaver, Misha Collins, Kurt Fuller, Rob Benedict, Julie McNiven & Mark Pellegrino

Supernatural stars Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles as brothers Sam and Dean Winchester. What first began with the brothers searching for their missing father has now become a way of life as they hunt demons and protect people from malevolent supernatural forces.

The Winchester brothers now face their toughest challenge yet in Season 5 as their relationship deteriorates following Sam’s walk on the dark side. With his actions opening Lucifer’s prison and setting him free, Sam knows how much he is responsible for, but Dean is not willing to let him off easily. As the tension between them grows, the brothers have to find a way to trust each other and work together if they are to save the world from Lucifer.

They also have the help of the angel Castiel (Misha Collins), their friend Bobby and a few others along the way who try their best to keep the brothers together and the world from going to Hell.

The season opener “Sympathy for the Devil” sees Lucifer trying to convince a human vessel (Mark Pellegrino) to surrender so that he can take over his body. Dean learns that he is a human vessel for Archangel Michael but refuses to be persuaded to accept his fate. Castiel comes up with a plan to find God to help them defeat Lucifer. Dean however thinks that God doesn’t care much for mankind but eventually agrees to the plan. In the second episode “Good God, Y’All” the brothers travel to a town where people are being possessed by demons. When they get there they find their old friend Ellen Harvelle (Samantha Ferris) trying to keep the demon population at bay which also includes her daughter. It turns out that the possession is a trick perpetrated by one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, War, in an effort to get people to fight against each other.

When Dean and Sam agree to part ways, unable to work or be around each other, Sam gets a visit from Lucifer who tells him that he is his true vessel. Sam calls Dean to tell him he wants to come back, but Dean refuses. In the episode “The End” Dean visits his future self when the Apocalypse is raging throughout the world. He learns that in the future Sam accepts what Lucifer has told him and allows himself to become his vessel, thus participating in the end of the world. Lucifer tells him that no matter what choice he makes, he will always end up in the same place.

Season 5 deals with the pressing issue of Free Will. To what extent are we free? As the brothers are toyed with by Angels and manipulated, their ability to choose their own fate weakens and so to do their trust in each other. If everything has already been determinded then no matter what they choose, the end result will be the same. However, if free will really exists, then nothing is written and everything depends on their choices. What makes the show so interesting is watching how they make these choices and what leads them there. As the 13th Century philosopher and theologian St Thomas Aquinas said:

Choice is the distinguishing mark of free decision. For we are said to be free in a decision when we can adopt one course and reject another: this is to choose.