Drink framing (Some thoughts on 12.11)
If Dean drinks milk anytime in 12.11, that faint screaming you hear will be mine. I promise this will make sense by the end... at least I hope so. Adults drinking milk in western movies and tv pretty much always means something and the context of it can be really fascinating. I can’t remember if Sam or Dean drink milk any time during the rest of the series but if Dean does during this next episode, it will say a lot about how they are trying to frame the reversion of his memories. In fact, if either of them ever drink milk in the series, expect it to mean something. I don’t know a single movie or show where this has happened where it didn’t hold significance. It was even something I was taught in film school. Some examples of films that use this trick to frame their characters: A Clockwork Orange Inglourious Basterds Mad Max: Fury Road Catch Me If You Can Seriously, there are entire essays by film people, psychologists, etc about this. If Dean drinks milk in the next episode, it will mean something. Filmmakers pretty much never give milk to an adult actor unless they’re trying to say something. In fact, pretty much every drink in film means something: When Finn and his family sit at the dinner table in the first episode of Stranger Things, everyone at the table, including his dad is drinking juice. Except his mother who drinks wine. This says something about her character and how the dynamic of this family works. I doubt this will happen, but this would be the perfect episode for it and it would be a very simple device to convey how they want Dean’s experience read depending on the context of the scene.
