#later reference

Ghosts and clouds And nameless things Squint your eyes and hope real hard Maybe sprout wings

You guys, I’m too tired to write a full meta but as I was turning things over in my head about the finale and how this season has been progressing Castiel’s words from The Empty just kept coming back:

(gif source: x)

Everyone has been holding in, holding back, holding onto things that just don’t work any longer. We all feel the frustration. We want some floodgates open, want communication and honesty. I know I said in a sad post earlier that the fact that this season felt full of stagnation was frustrating to me--and it is! It SO is! But I also said that it was exactly the point, that we were supposed to experience them as stuck and that they are supposed to experience themselves as stuck. Now here I am, wanting to do a massive recap about imprisonment and bonds (profound and otherwise) and holding in, but without the energy. (Thank you, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, you bastard. In the above gif you are The Empty and I am Castiel and I would like to be sent back please!)

Anyway, so I can refer to it later if I get time or energy, here’s an initial list of situations where characters need or want to be released:

First and most immediately in my mind, Castiel in The Empty.

Asmodeus’s prison and its inmates Castiel, Lucifer, and Gabriel.

Gabriel in actual shackles with his mouth sewed shut.

TONS and TONS of bar imagery...chainlink fences, motel room blinds, you name it and it’s holding them back. It hits Dean more frequently, of course.

Whole concept of passing through rifts and getting stuck or caught on the opposite sides of them (like a Hallmark movie).

Rowena being released from the bonds put on her to restrict her magic

Mary and Jack (and later Charlie) as AU Michael’s prisoners

Lucifer as AU Michael’s prisoner

Jack holding back his powers or releasing them but losing control.

Some of the very first scenes in 13x01 take place in a jail cell

The Shedim in their underground prison

Patience and her powers, Kaia and her powers (both parallel to Jack and his powers; all mirrors for Sam and especially his early plot arc)

Lots of the usual Boys Being Tied Up...Dean being handcuffed by the shapeshifter in 13x04 intercut with Cas talking to The Empty and saying “release me” is the most striking literal/metaphorical synergy for me. But there’s also Sam being bound to a chair while he threatened with being cut to pieces and auctioned off for parts and Dean being tied to an altar while an eldritch horror tries to tentacle-rape him.

Dean sends himself to The Veil and isn’t released into death. MoTW ghosts have been stuck on one side of the veil and are released from it.

Heist episode where everything is closed off and locked behind multiple layers and the goal is to liberate it.

Little child ghost in Scoobynatural who was bound to the earth by his father’s knife and just wanted to be released.

DEAN SAID “LET IT GO” (ok that’s not really an item on the list but dammit I’m gonna leave it there)

They literally boarded up a ghost in a closet in Scoobynatural and used Daphne’s curvaceous silhouette to try to keep it closed. It failed. Again this is the metaphorical working overtime.

 I haven’t even been going into the metaphorical imprisonment shown most clearly in the Greatest Villain of All - Miscommunication. Guys, you gotta let it out. Use your words. Let it go.

Performing!Dean has been showing cracks but he hasn’t exactly been released from the bonds of toxic masculinity.

Vessels are kind of about containing or being imprisoned; possession is definitely about something holding you back.

There’s a meta point that was made explicit last episode which is that the characters--and the show--are locked into predictable and toxic patterns. EVERY TIME they get close to a solution SOMETHING HAPPENS. I guess we are experiencing this along with them.

Ok, I think that is plenty to start with. I want also to point out how well this theme of imprisonment (or a more general holding back) and release fits with the idea that “it’s never too late to start all over again.” New beginnings did seem possible earlier in the season and even if we are locked into old, painful patterns (and old coping mechanisms) right now.

One final thing that is probably not related BUT...Dean and Cas did change one single thing about their pattern of communication. For the first season ever we’ve had no “Hello, Dean” from Cas. After some people felt cheated of it in 13x05 I wrote a post on how it was actually a positive sign and a case of “This space intentionally left blank”. I also made a bet with myself that we wouldn’t hear it. I was right in principle because we still haven’t heard it from real Cas. The only one we got was from Asmodeus who put the emphasis on the wrong syllable and gave the whole game away. I am willing to bet that we still won’t get one. Given how iconic it is of the Dean/Cas relationship I feel that it is a sign that things changed and shifted while Cas was dead, even if they haven’t acknowledged it yet.

I’d love for people with thoughts and energy and the inclination to add to this collection or pick up on something and run with it or whatever. I’m liking the season better as a whole now that I’m looking at this as a unifying theme but still have to chew it over more for myself. 

Tagging some writers (many of whom probably have posted on this topic but who I may have missed reading). As usual, though, tags are haphazard and reflect my addled memory...

Stay where you are Ever, after Chasing things that we should run from;

I don't drown, won't stay down Heat finds a way to rise somehow Scan the crowd as I'm coming out and I Don't see too many rivals now