11X15 Beyond The Mat || discussion.

"Not Just a Face in the Crowd" - On Dean Winchester and Wrestling (His Demons)

This season was promoted with the tag line "Wrestle Your Demons". Given that the upcoming episode features a case set in the wrestling world, this feels relevant in more than one way as Dean Winchester wrestled too, when he was a teenager. Only it was a fairly different kind of wrestling - more the olympic kind - than the one him and Sam seem to attend in 11x15 "Beyond the Mat". And both these types of sport do in fact reveal a lot about Dean Winchester and his mindset.

In S9 we learn that during the time Dean spent at Sonny's he made the wrestling team, more than that actually became a champion in it, earned his place on the boys home's version of the Hall of Fame. It was something he achieved for himself, something normal and yet he managed to be the best in something and that sadly is not something Dean has experienced a lot or thought of himself to be. The olympic kind of wrestling here is a reminder of a time when he could just be a kid, do what he wanted and most of all was told that someone "is proud" of him. The fact that Sonny, 20 years later, still had this certificate of Dean's becoming a champion in 1995, proves that without any hunting background, but just being himself he was considered a "hero", receivedrecognition.

Put that into perspective of Dean and Sam attending a wrestling fight in 2016, a spectacle that has little to do with the kind of olympic wrestling Dean did as a teenager. Wrestling as we see it in the promo is a stage fight - a scripted battle, in which before it even starts it is decided who wins, with the two opponents playing the parts they were chosen to play (Reminds you of something? Something to do with the little word "destiny" and playing your roles in the Grand Story?) and the whole lifestyle surrounding it can be compared well to the hunting lifestyle as those wrestlers play a role just as much as Sam and Dean do on a daily basis when going undercover as FBI agents or Rangers.

So whereas the wrestling Dean did in his youth was an expression of his true self, the wrestling world with stage fights is the fake kind. But Dean enjoys it - and I'm sure he enjoyed it as a teenager already looking up to those wrestlers as idols - because these performing athletes are celebrated as heroes. So when Dean sits in on this fight with his brother at his side, the sole fact that he goes for this type of entertainment is the purest form of escapism. The point imo however truly gets driven home in relation to Dean's mindset when the wrestler winks at Dean and Dean just disbelievingly - just like he did when he met Doctor Sexy MD - smiles and is flustered. Because THAT is recognition by someone Dean looks up to in a way. Last episode ended with Dean struggling as heavy with his place in the world as never before, he considered himself to be a mere bystander, just a witness, not important. So when this fighter looks directly at Dean this connects right back to this, because in this moment Dean is not just a bystander, not just a spectator, but becomes more than just a face in the crowd. He is recognized.

And this whole deal of Fake!Wrestling vs. Olympic!Wrestling relates to Dean's identity arc. And into that one the last kind of wrestling is woven into and it of course is the fight Dean battles against the Darkness/Amara and Lucifer. This moment of Dean in the ring, giving himself devil's horns couldn't be any more telling of what kind of fight lies ahead of Dean (and yes, I will remind everyone here that Lucifer when taking a trip down memory lane with Sam to Stull Cemetery said"This is where the price fight went down"). It was taking on the MoC that set Dean on this trajectory of growth, decay and transformation and with that coming into his own. This mark forced Dean to "wrestle with his demons", still does, to make him come out stronger on the other side. And yes, I will just leave the small bit here about how the fans of wrestling fights, who treat those fights as reality and not like the scripted storyline they actually follow as "Marks" and those, who see those fights as the performance that they are as "Smart Marks". You can't tell me that's not important in a storyline that started in S9 and spans until now and circles all around amark.