You do realize how insane this is, right?

A Fridge-Locker, An Enochian Puzzle Box, a Ma’lak Box... and the Closet (14x11 Damaged Goods)

I have been summoned by @savannadarkbaby and @dimples-of-discontent to talk about what the frick is up with the subtext in 14x11 Damaged Goods, to whit - these pin-up cowboy and dark-haired muscle-type dudes in Donna’s work-shed which the camera gives us an eye-full of… namely, this dude…

and this one…

[which, by the way, look SO like 1970s gay porn shoots, with those moustaches, - i.e. these are narrative (subtextual) manifestations of Dean’s gay thoughts TM]…

and Dean’s construction, in the same shed (covered in sexy dude pin-ups) of a Ma’lak (angel) box, i.e., in subtext, a closet, into which he intends to lock himself and AU!Michael with him…. uh huh…  

Here is the Ma’lak box (which, supposedly, Billy gave Dean the instruction manual for, although, I think Dean is an unreliable narrator here, regarding exactly what was in the book Billy handed him)… 

No sooner has Dean got a face-load of the pin-ups dudes, who he says are “Donna’s type” (yeah Dean, just Donna’s type...) than he is troubled by AU!Michael, locked in the fridge-locker (closet) in Dean’s mind, screaming to get out (which, just for emphasis we’ve already seen in the recap at the start of the episode)..

We also see the fridge-locker (closet) door, rattling in Dean’s mind, for further emphasis…

I’ve already written about this fridge-locker in Rocky’s Bar as a metaphor for the closet in Nihilism here:

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/182120562849/aumichael-and-the-closet 

as well as about how AU!Michael is himself a metaphor for Dean’s self-repression around his queerness here:

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/179226151009/queer-gods-and-monsters-14x02

and about how much of the visual symbolism in Rocky’s Bar speaks to Dean’s repressed queerness (and specifically his feelings for Castiel) here:

http://drsilverfish.tumblr.com/post/182142619479/rockys-bar-a-closer-look-in-deans-mind-14x10 

As Dean constructs the Ma’lak box (closet) for himself, the music croons sorrowfully, “No time for a summer friend, no time for the love you send….” just as we get another shot of a cowboy pin-up dude, (wow Donna/ Dean, you are horny on main) only this time showered in sparks:

For subtext-watchers, this musical reference to lost love, combined with a dude in a (white) cowboy hat, and sparks flying are, of course, references to Castiel, and to Dean’s repressed, sexual and romantic, feelings for his angel, like so:

13x06 Tombstone…  when Dean was playing seriously happy cowboy dress-up with Cas, after Castiel’s miraculous return from The Empty…

and of course, the famous Dean/Cas meet-cute, when sparks, literally, flew:

4x01 Lazarus Rising (an episode just recently heavily called-back, in the previous ep 14x10 Nihilism)

Perez, you ain’t even subtle….

The other box (closet) representation in this episode, Damaged Goods, the Enochian puzzle box into which Mary Winchester locked the demon Abraxas, is forced open by Nick, with a drill (not the sexy kind of drilling though, right, Dean?) whilst Nick is crooning “Yeah baby, Yeah baby…” 

I mean…. ?!?!?

I have a whole lot more to say about the connection between the queer subtext in the episode and the underlying and related Jungian themes, but I’ll save that for another post…

Reblogging just to add this final symbolic shot of Dean and Sam with the Ma’lak box (aka Dean’s metaphorical repression box/ closet) in between them (blocking full communication) and one of the pin-up dudes (aka Dean’s Gay Thoughts TM) clearly lurking on the wall behind:

#FINISH HIM

Dean and Donna have the same taste in burgers.

I wonder if they have the same taste in other things. 🤔

“Well Donna certainly has a type” OH AND YOU DON’T DEAN? You expect us to believe you don’t like sexy doctors and cowboys? 😂