Death's Impermanence
The current tendency towards a sort of glorification of immortality is born, presumably, from the elongation of biological life (sometimes at the cost of quality of life) and exacerbated by the alienation of death and dying from common vocabulary and speech. In "The Reversal of Death: Changes in Attitudes Toward Death in Western Societies," Philippe Ariès posits additional trends in the silencing of death, such as the isolation of the dying individual and pressure for the living to conceal mourning and grief (Ariès 152-153). Similarly, a recent review of three books in The Gerontologist suggests that the 21st century denial and defiance of death asserts the values of rescue and avoidance over offering compassionate end of life care within healthcare practices (Waldrop 576).
The number of resurrections that have taken place in the Supernatural universe alone supports and subverts this notion of a modern immortality complex. Certain resurrections in Supernatural are treated outrageously and humorously in a gesture which seems to exaggerate and ridicule the practiced nonchalance and tendency towards trivialization which accompanies the silence surrounding death in the 21st century.
Perhaps the most notable example of humorous resurrection is found in 3.11, Mystery Spot, which finds Sam caught in a Groundhog Day-style loop, reliving the same day in which Dean dies over and over. Though upon revealing the source of Sam's entrapment and Dean's seemingly endless deaths and resurrections the episode takes a more serious turn (discussed here), the manners in which Dean's deaths are depicted are increasingly outrageous and showcase a distinct trivialization of and disbelief in the completeness of death. Because viewers can laugh at the deaths, it is assured that Dean cannot possibly remain dead. This same humor is at play in 4.08, Wishful Thinking, in which a charmed well grants the wishes of all townspeople who toss it a coin. The wishes granted throughout the episode are increasingly ridiculous, and thus by the time Sam is struck and killed by a bolt of lightning because of another man's wish, there is no doubt that he will be brought back to life when the wishing well is stripped of its power.
Death is shown to be trivial and unthreatening to the characters themselves in 5.16, Dark Side of the Moon, in which Sam and Dean are shot and killed by rival hunters and sent to heaven. After watching his brother die, Dean turns to the shooters and warns, "when I come back...I'm gonna be pissed." On the other side, Castiel demonstrates a similarly flippant attitude to Dean's news, replying with a simple, "Condolences," and then encouraging Dean to stay in heaven (and therefore dead) for as long as possible in order to find another important angel. When Sam and Dean are reunited with their earthly bodies at the end of the episode, it comes as no surprise.
The trivilization and humor with which Supernatural often portrays death and resurrection both mirrors and exaggerates the ways in which modern, Western society strives for and sometimes even assumes immortality as a given. However, the show nevertheless continuously confronts and details the deep anxieties betrayed by preoccupation with immortality, which I explore in the following sections.
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