q mentioned in the thread for 5x02 that she would research the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and that inspired me to do some research on my own. Okay, I didn't get very far (wikipedia) but it raised a questioned with me (and a possible answer).

There are four Horsemen of the Apocalypse:

First one is Conquest, on a white horse, and his powers are "To go forth in conquest; to kill with the beasts of the earth."

Second one is War, on a red horse, and his powers are "To take peace from the earth, and let men kill one another."

Third one is Famine, on a black horse, and his powers are "To bring famine (drought?). To kill with hunger."

Fourth one is Death, on a pale (green) horse, and he is "Followed by Hades (and) kills with death and disease" (He kills with death... how innovative :71:)

Okay, all jokes aside... one thing that struck me odd was that we met the 2nd Horseman in last night's episode (5x01)... so where was the first? (If they explained it in the ep and I missed it because I was too busy drooling over certain hot angels, you can stop reading now LOL)

So of course TPTB could have decided to just screw the "established" order and give us a bit of a surprise by starting with the 2nd... but honestly, I didn't expect the 4 Horsemen to show up so early in the season and what difference does it make to start with the 1st or 2nd one?

Maybe they thought the 1st Horseman is a bit boring, so they decided to skip him... but why all this talk about the 4 Horsemen if you want to bring only 3 of them? Seems a bit odd.

So the only explanation I could come up with, was: we must have already seen the 1st Horseman.
We've had only 2 episodes this season so far, so the only episode we could have seen him, was in the 1st one, right?

Since I couldn't remember any white horses from that episode, I decided to read a bit more about the 1st Horseman and discovered some interesting bits:

Apparently the 1st Horseman is the only of the 4 that is open for interpretation whether he's good or evil. All the other Horsemen are always seen as evil forces but depending on interpretation, the 1st one can be either.

Those who interpret him as evil are pretty much saying: if 3 out of 4 Horsemen are evil and destructive, then the remaining one must be as well. They see the 1st Horseman as a manifestation of the Anti-Christ (Lucifer?). There was a lot of white light when Lucifer rose from hell, white light is not something you'd normally associate with hell and Lilith wore a white dress.

Then they are those who interpret the 1st Horseman as righteous and they say that the 1st Horseman is Christ himself. Jesus Christ appears on a white horse in a later chapter of revelations, white is a color associated with righteousness and Christ is often portrayed as a conqueror.
There's another interpretation that suggests that the 1st Horseman is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is already portrayed as the lamb in Revelations, so maybe the 1st Horseman is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (The lamb is the one who breaks the 7 - not 66 - seals to release the 4 Horsemen... among other things)

So imho, the 1st Horseman could have either been Lucifer or - if we want to go with the interpretation that the 1st Horseman is good and is someone who speaks for God, for Jesus Christ... who acts on his behalf... - then it could be Castiel?

:eek2:

Thoughts? Opinions? Rotten tomatoes?

OMG! :eek2: that was amazing. just wow. that all makes TOTAL sense. thank you for writing that all up. is it Thursday yet?

Now that we're a bit further into the season and had our next Horseman encounter (that we know of) I decided to re-read my own ramblings on the subject and see how they're holding up.

So far we've seen the 2nd and the 4th Horseman (and the last one really killed with Death (= zombies) !!) ... just where were the 1st and 3rd one?

I don't think the "Castiel is the 1st Horseman" sounds plausible anymore. The only thing that came to my mind was that Sam wore a white suit when he agreed to be Lucifer's vessel. Does that mean he's the 1st Horseman?

Which leaves the question: Who is the 3rd one? The one who rides a black horse...
The 2nd Horseman rode a red horse which in the SPN verse turned into a red sportscar.

Do we know someone who rides a black car, a black car whose importance has been emphasized in many episodes and which even accompanied his owner into heaven?
Mhmm, yeah... I guess we do...

Of course there is always the possibility that TPTB just took some liberties with the order in which they had the Horsemen appear in the show and we will meet the 1st and 3rd Horseman in one of the remaining episodes this season.

I also did some research on Joshua, who we met in the last episode.

In the Bible, Joshua is not an angel but the leader of the Israelite tribes after Moses' death. He's described as a faithful, humble, deserving, wise man. (Sounds about right, huh?) I couldn't find any references to a garden in connection with him.
One interesting bit that I found was about his name: Joshua is only the English version of the Hebrew name Yehoshua which is also the origin of another important name in the Bible: Jesus.

So Joshua (not the Joshua in the Bible but the one in SPN ) = Jesus ?

I admit that might be a bit far fetched.

The biblical Joshua was Moses' apprentice and one of the 12 spies Moses sent out to explore Canaan. Only he and another spy, Caleb, gave encouraging reports and as a reward they were the only ones (out of the 12 spies) to enter the promised land. And he was also a commander in battle. During one of these battles he asked God to stop the sun and the moon, so he could finish the battle in daylight. (Ha! I remember reading that story in my Children's Bible!) God granted his wish, which is really special because "there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel." (Joshua 10:14)
His other big achievement was that he divided the land among the 12 tribe. He died as an old man, at the age of 110 (well, according to the Bible).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua