*Takes her glasses off and rubs her eyes* Sweet muffins, Iâve been busy recently.
Before I start here, know that Iâm still destiel positive. I still think the reading of Casâ âI love youâ as romantic is intended and valid. However, I also think the platonic reading is intended. I think theyâre still trying to play both sides. That doesnât mean I think theyâll do that forever though. I can see the signs of shore here. Seagulls and sandbars. It feels like a matter of time before we reach land but I canât know of course.
The title of 12.12 can be read as a cheeky acknowledgement of this.
âStuck in the middleâ as in âbetween thingsâ, an ambiguous phrasing in itself since it doesnât specify where the things are or what theyâre between on its own. The (With you) implies another party of either a person or persons. Again ambiguous and where they are in relation to being stuck is also ambiguous but the acknowledgement of some other party involved is drawn attention to.
The phrasing makes it sound like either someone is stuck in the middle of a group of people or between a two entities or theyâre relationship with someone is âstuck in the middleâ and ambiguous.Â
Dean and Cas are stuck in the middle of the interpretation of their relationship between familial and romantic, between singular and plural with the meaning of âyouâ... at least in general English. But not just that... to me it sounds like theyâre drawing attention to the nature of the ambiguity of the phrasing in the episode and how their relationship is handled textually. The episode/writing is stuck in the middle with how to interpret the word âyouâ.
Iâll flail at more unambiguously positive things later. There are definitely plenty of things to flail at.
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*Mr. Burns hand wringing*
Yes, excellent.
Mostly...
Ok, so no one drank milk in this episode but it kind of wasnât needed, intentions werenât exactly subtle.
...Also, I knew it! Mwahahaha! Those damned, shot hogging waffles! I know what youâre trying to tell me, waffles. I understand you. Whatâs that, waffles? @mittensmorgul already shed light on your grand conspiracy? Why, yes. I know, thatâs what she does and she does it very well. In fact, Iâm sure many others have too. However, Iâd still like to break this scene down myself because it's interesting... well, part of it is. Part of itâs a tired tendency in tv thatâs still common and makes me cringe.. *sigh*Â
Ok, so after Dean wakes up next to a blatant Alice in Wonderland reference, he gets a guy to lend him his phone and asks Sam to meet him at a waffle house(House of deceptiooon!). Thereâs your exposition.Â
Scene in the waffle house opens with a shot of sugared up waffle stack leaving the kitchen. Just based on this and our knowledge of waffles in the show, we can gather that this scene will involve deception. The waffles are placed as being part of Deanâs order, but he doesnât touch them. The camera reminds us of the waffles again in the scene by lazily panning down and blurring out the foreground. Dean never touches these waffles. When the waitress from the night before approaches Dean, she slaps him when he doesnât remember her. He then pays for the food and leaves the waffles on the counter untouched. The most he acknowledges them is offering them to Sam, who declines. Sam even thinks Dean is drunk, even though heâs not. Could count as another deception, but itâs less important here.
Sounds to me like maybe this girl was the waffles, unfortunately. Iâm not really a fan of likening her to food but itâs kind of whatâs being written... again, not uncommon. And that point is brought into harsher light when they meet her again in the burger place later on. She starts telling them about the night before and how she was busy. Dean had drank a few tequilas and flirted with her, then according to her, they âLet off some steamâ Dean doesnât remember. I agree with Mittens when she said the waitress was testing him. Her story just doesnât add up on its own. The only part of what she says is true is that he drank some, got on the bull and flirted some, agreeing to meet her later.
Dean ordered a plate of sugary waffles, vaguely acknowledges them, but leaves them on the table without touching them and following through.
Dean agreed to something sweet from the waitress, flirted with her, but left without touching her and following through.
@obsessionisaperfume hereâs the Kuleshov Effect post I talked about. Hopefully it is sufficient.
TL;DR: Editing is probably the most powerful tool film has and how itâs used tells the story. Literally. In the case of SPN, there is a lot of instances that can be read as destiel riding in on a giant brick.
Ok, so preamble for those who donât know what it is: The Kuleshov Effect was named for Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov. It deals with a âmental phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation.â
The original test that coined the name was a short series of clips showing an actor in a black and white film with a stoic expression, intercut with various images. Itâs about 50 seconds, have a looksie.
The short was built to see what meaning people would give to the manâs expression and as Kuleshov expected, they reacted accordingly based on what shots were intercut. So the stoic face was read as hungry, lustful, sad, whatever by most people even though it was all the same expression.
You can invoke this effect without both pieces ever seeing each other. You can create a vast head space for a character that the actor may never see by intercutting the actor with something like... war stock footage. We can understand what the character is going through without it ever being spoken and without the actor saying or sometimes really doing anything in relation to it.
That isnât to say that actors arenât important, of course they are. But a lot of understanding a filmed work look to the editing. The same way books look at word choice, sentence structure, etc. Editing is the last stand of âauthorial intentâ (as a nebulous term. Not by a single person) between the production and the audience. Itâs the syuzhet, the filter of bias that sets the tone and the pace and the narrative and almost no one is truly privy to it until all of production is over.
Now, directors, producers, various others depending on the work often help dictate the editing to an extent. They decide what version of shots to leave in and give an idea of what theyâre going for. Some take a much more active role and are part of the editing process to a great extent. Sometimes itâs just the director helping, sometimes itâs like... 8 other people in production. Sometimes a film studio drops all their footage for their several million dollar property off at a trailer house and says âpanic numberâs on the fridge, Iâll be back in the morning.â and expects the final edit not to suck.
Editors exist for a reason and itâs not just to cut the film to an edible size, set pace and presentation. âWhen to cutâ and âhow to think like an editorâ are important to the process on their own and they are their own people.
Authorial intent is honestly kind of hilarious. Especially in works with multiple âintendersâ
But letâs poke the intent bear anyway, shall we? âBunch of examples under the cut.
Letâs start with 12.10 since it was recent and was pointed out specifically by @bluestar86â not long ago.
Gah... I donât have any gifs. I keep trying to make them but they donât want to work for whatever reason when I post them.
Iâll add them in later if I remember/get them to work.. *sigh*
So in 12.10, weâre shown the scene Cas tells about what he remembers when he and Ishimâs fleet killed Akibel. At one point, Akibel states something like: â âhow can you know humans and not love them?â with the camera cutting to Casâ reaction.
Another instance happens in 12.09 after Billie is killed and the BMoL meet up with the Winchesters on the bridge. When the Winchesters are getting back into the impala, the BMoL tell the Winchesters they were âunprofessionalâ with the camera then finding Castiel and then cutting to him entering the car with foliage framing the foreground. Itâs a PoV shot.I have a feeling theyâll be after Cas before the seasonâs end.
One of my favorites is in 8.17 (when it doesnât make me sad), while Sam is talking to Meg. Itâs intercut with Cas and Deanâs Crypt Scene to an interesting parallel. Itâs a bit muddy, but itâs there:
Meg: So some chick actually got you off hunting eh? Thatâs a rare creature. So tell me, how did you meet this unicorn?
-And the scene cuts to Cas in the crypt with Dean. They have the start of their tiff, followed by a J-Cut and weâre back to Meg and Sam talking. Now take a look at this exchange and then think about how it relates to the next scene with Dean and Cas.
Meg: You hit a dog and stopped, why?
Sam: That whole story and that was your takeaway?
It is kind of a weird takeaway... isnât it? Moving on.
Meg: No, I heard the rest. You fell in love with a Unicorn. It was beautiful, then sad, then sadder. I laughed, I cried, I puked in my mouth a little... and honestly I kinda get it.
Sam: Really?
Meg: ...Weâve got company.
Sound familiar to another situation?
-Cut back to a closeup insert of Cas and his Angel blade. The above discourse serves a few purposes with the lens Iâm applying to the cuts here:
1) It parallels a relationship between Sam and a love interest to Cas and Dean. How many times has that happened? Oh yeah. Constantly.
2) We know that Dean has been paralleled to a dog before. Cas hits Dean, then stops... he breaks his connection to Naomi by any means needed. He chooses âthemâ.
Meg: Go. Save your brother...and.. my unicorn
We know what sheâs talking about. Sheâs saying her feelings for Cas and how important she is to him but using the established metaphor. Cas is likened to a unicorn by Meg- whoâs connection to Cas draws us further into the intercut parallel by specifically referring to Cas in metaphorical terms and comparing her situation with Samâs. That situation being whatâs happening in the crypt during their conversation. You could argue that Cas and Dean are each otherâs unicorns but for the purposes of this, Dean is the dog Cas hit to make him stop, and Cas is a rarity that changes you.
On its own, the scene allows for some drama and the continuation of Samâs story but we donât learn anything new on Samâs end. We also donât really learn anything new on Megâs end. We already knew she had something for Cas  It mostly serves to give motivation to Megâs actions but why tell the whole story at that time?
The famous âToo much heart was always Castielâs problemâ cut to the river scene in 8.02. Remember, a physical person edited that. Why put that scene there? What were they trying to accomplish?
Some instances from season 11:
Dean and Samâs intercut difference in takeaway at the end of 11.11
11.18: Amaraâs reaction shot when her attempts to reach Dean are cut off by his concern for Cas.
11.21: Amara uses Cas to find Dean, we see her placing her hand over Casâ heart, then cutting to Dean behind a cage motif.
11.22: Casifer going limp on the cut after Amara inflicts her power on Dean and Luciferâs âvesselâ being out of commission afterwards. You cannot convince me that Amara didnât access Casâ function through her power..
Isnât it interesting that throughout season 11, the closups on hearts and pining have all involved Dean or Cas?
Hereâs a favorite from all the way back in 5.04. This episode is full of editing choices that tell us about a potential relationship between endverse Dean and Cas:
2014!Dean kills his own man and 2009!Dean intervenes. From the shot of the remaining men and 2009!Dean, weâre led to believe the convoy is disturbed by 2009!Dean. Itâs not until 2014!Dean starts talking about his âpretty messed up situationâ does the camera cut to 2009!Dean, who, along with the audience, realizes that 2014!Dean isnât pointing at him, heâs pointing and talking about Cas, and from Casâ expression, thereâs a reason for it. This scene sets up, almost entirely through editing; an unseen structure of the conflicts in the episode and the endverse. The way the relationships for Dean have progressed in this version of the future.Â
Also in 5.04, there are several great ones in the meeting scene just before they take the fight to Lucifer:
2009!Dean: We were in uh... Janes.. cabin last night, and apparently we, and.. Risa. Have a connection.
Within this dialogue alone, there are several shots showing character relationships. Thereâs Risaâs disgusted arm crossing, 2014!Deanâs sort of sad glaring, realization of what is known about him in the room and who is present, but most notably Casâ inhale of realization and smile at the end of what is said. Cas isnât being spoken to. He has seemingly no reason to have a reaction shot here that says without words âOf course he didâ unless there was some reason to place it there. Itâs a very specific reaction. 2014!Dean shoots the rest of that conversation down right quick.
There really are so many instances of this. I can only think of a few. Iâm sure many others could think of more. Feel free to add your own. Doesnât have to be destiel related.
Even if we donât get many match cuts in this show (for some dumb reason), we arenât short on very heavily framed instances of the Kuleshov effect giving us little glimpses of whatever swims around in the post production of SPN. The final decisions that tell the story mixed with our own expectations and perspectives. Many hands working to create a world.
A friend told me maybe the crew-ra wonât make any ship between main characters canon and thatâs why theyâre encouraging all ships, because itâs not unusual in kidsâ show to have no canon ship by the end *sweats*
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