supernatural Fans are excited to see how Misha Collins, best known for his role as Castiel, will battle legendary villain Harvey Dent on The CWs Gotham Knights. Given the emotional and physical depth that Collins has brought to Cas since Season 4 of supernaturalthe hype is real.
However, while Castiel was innocent in many ways, the angel was also a special source of information, especially with the divine. While Team Free Will didn’t seem to know if Castiel was the heart or the power of the group, he had a brain that could comprehend the incomprehensible and a special way of sharing his millennia-old knowledge.
It’s really easy
“It’s a simple matter to tune out certain subsonic frequencies. I could draw you a diagram if you’d like.”
In a hilarious episode where Thursday’s Angel decides to become a Chaser, Castiel shows how invaluable he is to Team Free Will. Whether he’s interrogating a cat or examining a corpse for signs of EMF, he makes the hunt a breeze.
When Castiel explains that he turned off “Angel Radio,” Sam, Dean, and viewers are reminded how intelligent the resident Angel is — if it has nothing to do with pop culture or social cues. He has abilities and an intricate knowledge of existence at the molecular level. While he doesn’t know what Looney Tunes is, Castiel knows what he’s talking about with infrasound.
Make love, not war
“Each of us is a fragment of total perception – just a compartment in that dragonfly eye of the group mind.”
In the Season 5 episode “The End,” Zachariah sends Dean five years into the future to show him what could happen if he keeps saying “no” to Michael. Although this is one of the best Dean episodes supernatural, Endverse!Castiel can’t help but stand out. Without his powers, Castiel becomes a hedonistic soldier dabbling in decadence, orgies, and drugs.
This quote is beautifully and intelligently phrased to show how one person’s perception differs from another – especially of an angel who shares a connection with every angel in existence. However, this quote gets a lot funnier when we learn that the “love guru” isn’t preaching about philosophy, but about sharing group spirit and group sex with these women.
Know your listeners
“The answer to your question is best expressed as a set of partial differential equations.”
Castiel often has to “stupidize” his explanations of time travel, Angel Radio, and flying to the Winchesters who don’t understand celestial physics. When Castiel plans to send Sam and Dean back to 1861, he reveals that they will only have 24 hours to find the phoenix that Samuel Colt wrote about in his journal.
Unfortunately, Castiel was never able to show his understanding of quantum mechanics and general relativity, as Bobby reminds Castiel to “aim lower” when speaking to those with little understanding of time travel physics. Instead, he explains that the further back he sends her, the harder it becomes to find her again. Often Castiel’s tremendous intelligence is forgotten or completely ignored due to an inability to understand social etiquette or Dean’s credentials.
Angelic Cloak of Invisibility
“An Enochian sigil. It will hide you from every angel of creation, including Lucifer… I carved it on your ribs.”
Shortly after being resurrected by God (or the prophet Chuck, as he was then known), Castiel saves the Winchesters from Zachariah’s wrath and cements his position as a true hero on Team Free Will. And in one of Castiel’s most brilliant ideas on the series, he decides to carve Enochian sigils into Sam and Dean’s ribs to hide them from angels – specifically Michael and Lucifer.
The carvings keep them hidden from all angels, meaning that if they wanted Castiel to join them, they had to call him first. While he initially had trouble using a phone, his genius is undeniable. Carving it into the Winchester’s ribs painfully but brilliantly solves the tattoo problem where if a tattoo seal is broken (through injury) the seals would stop working.
As healthy as the next man – or angel
“I’m perfectly healthy. But 94% of psychotics think they are perfectly sane, so I guess we should be asking, ‘What is sane?’”
Castiel didn’t have it easy after Team Free Will managed to distract the apocalypse. He waged an angelic civil war against Raphael, he consumed leviathans from purgatory, absorbed the trauma of Sam’s Cage, and then was banished to purgatory with Dean when they killed Dick Roman, the leader of the leviathans.
“Crazy Castiel” took Sam’s mental trauma from his time in the cage with Lucifer and became a very different character. Seemingly going to purgatory reset Castiel’s mind, but that didn’t stop him from leaving Dean. In response to Dean asking Castiel how he feels, Castiel wanders philosophically and asks the question “What is healthy?”. It’s a brilliant question to which no one has an answer.
ghostwriter
“You never learned how to tell a good story.” “But you did it.”
When pitted against Metatron, one of the most manipulative and intelligent supernatural villains around, Castiel knows that brute force just isn’t enough when Metatron has a mass of angels blindly following him. Castiel understands that truly defeating the Scribe of God requires clever tactics and thorough strategy – unfortunately, that means engaging Dean in a battle that resulted in his death and demonic transformation.
Once Castiel destroys the angel tablet, Metatron finds him and maliciously monologues his evil victories over Team Free Will and sheep-like angels. What Metatron doesn’t realize is that Castiel is broadcasting his speech over his own Angel radio kit, letting all the Angel kids know what he thinks of them. It is an ingenious tactic to defeat an angel so obsessed with good storytelling by having him tell the true story to the angels.
food for thought
“It’s like being in every Biggerson’s at once – trapped in a quantum superstition.”
Another reminder that Castiel started the show as a warrior, he’s an excellent tactician. He led the armies of heaven, commanded his legion, and gave up everything for the Winchesters. When he escaped Naomi’s mind control, Castiel took the angel tablet with him.
Given that Castiel (like other angels) has a good understanding of quantum mechanics, he knew very well how to outrun the angels. By jumping from one Biggerson’s to the other, the angels and Castiel are in each Biggerson’s and neither of them at the same time – but their paths don’t cross. Castiel’s genius had devised a tactic that Naomi could only solve with mass murder to get his attention.
Curiouser and more curious
“It represents an odd curl in metaphysics, doesn’t it? If you kill a monster in monster heaven, where does it go?”
Castiel and Dean spent a year in purgatory after killing Dick Roman. During their time in the afterlife, Dean, Benny, and Castiel apparently killed dozens of monsters. Oddly enough, the creatures in Purgatory are already dead, but could be killed again.
Castiel is the only one to voice viewers’ thoughts on this, questioning this metaphysical flaw and wondering where these monsters are then sent – Monster Hell? The emptiness? As a celestial being, Castiel’s mere existence is linked to philosophy, but just because he has experiential knowledge of the structure of the universe doesn’t mean he knows everything.
Sleeping Beauty
“I’m awake. And I will stay awake and I will keep you awake until we both go insane. I will fight you…for eternity…set me free.”
By Season 13, the Winchesters had really rubbed off on Castiel. So much so that Castiel even adopts his wayward orphan and angers a cosmic being enough to bring him back to life. After being killed by Lucifer, Castiel is sent to The Empty but is awakened by Jack’s Nephilim powers.
The void where dead angels and demons are sent is guarded by a nameless deity as old as Chuck and Amara. Unhappy at being awakened, the being tries everything to force the angel back to sleep. Castiel uses this to force the entity to revive him. A brilliant tactic that inevitably leads to the entity’s hatred of Castiel, unfortunately ending in his death and Dean’s survival in one of the final episodes of the series.
What’s up Doc?
“The bird represents God, and the coyote is the human endlessly chasing the divine but never being able to catch it.”
In a case involving cartoons depicting one of Castiel’s best moments, the angel has to watch Looney Tunes to understand the rules of the genre – anvils fall from the sky and land on the giant X, black holes falling up Walls are drawn become doors and hearts can leap out of their chests at the sight of their loved ones.
Castiel studies Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner and not only finds the slapstick humor amusing, but also finds a deeper level in the animated shorts. He compares them to mankind’s elaborate schemes to reach God, which inevitably fail, and finds it hilarious indeed. It also proves that Castiel and other angels exist on a different wavelength from humans, where they have a more advanced understanding of everything from philosophy to physics.
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