User blog:NaiflidG/Relating to Alastair in "On the Head of a Pin" and "Caged Heat"

Alastair's susceptibility to holy water (as shown in "On the Head of a Pin") has always been kind of a curiosity to me because I consider Alastair to be stronger than Azazel due to eye color. It has finally been proven that Lilith is stronger than Azazel and that white-eyed demons outrank yellow-eyed demons, and it has been indicated numerous times that a demon's rank does signal his power level in Supernatural; ergo, I think Alastair -- as a white-eyed demon -- is stronger than Azazel -- as a yellow-eyed demon. (Man, I already regret typing this. If "who's stronger?" arguments pop up in comments below, drinks are on me.) That's why I was a little puzzled by Alastair's being hurt by holy water in "On the Head of a Pin", when Azazel had been shown in "Devil's Trap" to be immune. At first, I thought it was because Dean was injecting the holy water directly into Alastair's veins -- right into the heart, or essence, if you will, of Alastair -- as opposed to Azazel's skin -- his outer shell -- getting splashed with it. But Alastair is also shown being splashed in the face with holy water and still reacting in agony. It's doubly odd because Ruby indicates in "No Rest for the Wicked' that Lilith is immune to holy water because of her rank and Alastair is ranked equally with Lilith according to eye color, so he should probably be immune, too. (Ruby may be lying -- as she tends to do -- but I'm willing to buy what she's saying here because Azazel is immune, so white-eyed demons should probably be immune, too.) This is further supported by Ruby noticing Sam pulling out a flask of holy water, and telling him, "No, Sam, you've got to pull him right away," in "I Know What You Did Last Summer". If Ruby is that concerned with getting rid of Alastair as soon as possible, why does she tell Sam to put something away that would actually buy them more time by incapaciting and distracting Alastair for a few more precious moments? Ruby is invested in Sam's life, if nothing else; she has worked to keep him alive and out of serious danger; she knows that Alastair is serious danger about to walk in and attack them. Ruby can't play games here, she needs Sam alive at all costs and Alastair will definitely kill him if he gets the chance (remember Lilith putting a hit out on Sam? Yeah, that's still in effect at this point), so the only reason she wouldn't use something that would buy them even a little more time to defeat Alastair is if she knew that it wouldn't buy them time.

Then why does Alastair get affected by holy water in "On the Head of a Pin"? Some users have suggested that it is because Alastair is greatly weakened at the time, having been imprisoned in an Old Enochian devil's trap and tortured by angels for at least a full day. Remember that Castiel broke two monsters -- one instantaneously -- who were otherwise highly resilient to torture (including torture from Crowley) in "Mommy Dearest" and "The Man Who Knew Too Much", and that Castiel was the one torturing Alastair in this time, along with Uriel, who is likely similarly skilled. It is also important to note that Alastair also already had holy water burning in his veins, which could've made him more vulnerable to ordinary skin contact with it because it would've aggravated the burning. My personal "eureka!" moment was the realization that Castiel must have supplied Dean with all his torture equipment because he and Uriel had whisked him away at the start of the episode without letting Dean gather up any of his own supplies. Even though Dean had Ruby's knife on him, there's no way he had that cart stocked with torture tools that he wheeled out to use on Alastair, in his pocket. So, Castiel supplied him. One of these supplies was likely holy water -- holy water that I suspect angels blessed themselves for maximum effect. I think that all of these factors were at play in Alastair's torture, which is why I now think that Alastair is ordinarily immune to holy water, but that under the circumstances listed, it did have a strong effect on him. In this scenario, I think that the effect would be the same for Azazel and for Lilith if they'd been the ones caught and tortured. I would argue that it might take longer to wear Lilith down to that point (based on the fact that she is much more resilient to Sam's powers than Alastair), but I think that, ultimately, she would get there.

On an unrelated-but-actually-sorta-related note: It was revealed in "Caged Heat" that Meg was another apprentice of Alastair's, which, according to Meg herself and to Dean, should give her the torture skills necessary to make Crowley do whatever she wants. Crowley, though, indicates that she isn't as skilled as she's built up to be, telling her, "You don't know torture, you little insect." Note that this is after she has done some type of TK attack on his host's insides to bring him to his knees and make him cough up blood, and has made him candidly admit that he can't save Sam's soul like they want him to. Was Crowley just trying to save face by belittling Meg's skills in torture, or was he really just not that impressed? (The pain might have been enough to make him admit the truth, but he still might look down on her technique or whatever.) Maybe it was because she'd only gotten started, so she didn't have enough time to really get to work on him. The situation is later reversed when Crowley tortures Meg; the pain is enough for her to give him rough information on what he wants, but not the whole truth; she plans to keep herself alive long enough to make an escape. Neither demon seems to be afraid of the other in the way that Ruby is afraid of Alastair, though Meg does seem to be at least wary of Crowley because she knows that she would be outmatched by him in strength in a one-on-one fight. In your opinion, who is the more skilled torturer: Crowley or Meg? Evidence seems to point to Meg, but if you disagree, tell me why you think it's Crowley.