SHIPS ARE SAILING AND I’M FEELING FINE
GUYS. I HAVE BEEN ON A TWO WEEK INTERNET BLACKOUT AND OH BOY HAVE I MISSED YOU!
So guess who was on an actual ship, shipping my ship, missing out on my ship sailing whilst sailing on a ship? (I’m sorry. Groan at me all you want.)
Okay so here’s the thing, thanks to my 2 week stint on an actual ship I haven’t been blogging or writing my reviews or meta and I am bursting at the seams to talk about what the hell has been going on over the past few weeks.
Because WOW. Guys… GUYS…
In case you have been living under a rock for the past two weeks (or in the middle of the ocean with no wifi and a maritime data package at £6 per megabyte like me…) then you may have missed the following HUGE advances in our ships development towards a canon happy ending…
- First we get 13x03 in which Dean’s grief and anger over losing Cas was the trigger for Jack to use his powers to literally pierce through the veil of death and save the day… because we all know that this is a thing that gay love can do on this show – it’s a CANON FACT (thank you Ghostfacers)
- THEN in 13x04 we are once again reminded that Cas’s “love” is a big focal point of his arc. The whispered “I know who you love” and the specific break of flow with the “who” rather than the “what” that the two neighbouring statements use forcing the audience to latch on to that “who” and question it.
- In all three episodes we are shown JUST HOW DIFFERENT Sam and Dean’s grief is regarding Cas. To the point Sam is almost portrayed as not caring about his supposed “brother” and as much as this kinda sucks for Sam it is exactly the kind of exposition we need to get the GA to start THINKING about this stuff. WHY doesn’t Sam seem to care as much? WHAT IS DIFFERENT?
- The fact that THREE times now Cas has been the episodes cliff hanger, and that all three times his moment has come shortly after Dean’s climactic emotional outburst in a way that is basically the television equivalent of hitting your audience in the face with a shovel to scream at them that CAS IS THE ANSWER. CAS WILL MAKE DEAN BETTER. DEAN DOESN’T BELIEVE IN ANYTHING? WELL HE BELIEVES IN CAS. LOOK AT CAS. CAS IS BACK. CAS WILL MAKE IT BETTER.
The sheer amount of negative space in these episodes has floored me. There is a HUGE question mark hanging over the ENTIRE season so far. This plot doesn’t quite work if you aren’t “in the know” (in other words, a destiel shipper). But each episode 3, 4 and 5 have answered those silent questions perfectly with a big neon arrow pointing directly at CAS.
Cas is the answer to all of Dean’s problems, that is the message that the show has shoved in the audiences face constantly since season 13 began, and the REAL silent question that the show is just BEGGING the audience to ask is WHY? WHY is Cas SO important to Dean? WHY is Dean’s grief SO MUCH worse than Sam’s? WHY is Cas the answer to EVERY. SINGLE. EMOTIONAL. POINT. SO. FAR for Dean?
WE KNOW THE ANSWER.
What I am constantly being amazed by this season is that this isn’t deep meta. This isn’t some next level highly analytical picking apart of symbols and film theory that you need a degree in film or literature to figure out. This is so close to surface level you can see it floating just beneath the waves. As a destiel shipper at this point I am blinking and wondering why I should even bother writing about this stuff because it is SO OBVIOUS that at this point, if someone asks me where I see destiel in the show I can just gesture vaguely at season 13 and say LOOK. Because all you need is two eyes and a brain that is capable of consuming media with some degree of intelligent thought.
Honestly what else is there to do now other than to sit back and enjoy the show? I am desperate for them to finally bring it out of subtext of course, as my one gripe is that we are still not there yet. All the foundations are in place, but we still need a textual confirmation that what we are watching is not platonic love. My feelings on that matter now is that we are no longer dealing with an ‘if’ but a ‘when’ and I don’t say that kind of thing lightly.
Perhaps I am deluded in this thought, but every episode so far in season 13 has had me struggling to find the platonic reading. We are well and truly in romantic territory and I’m sorry but that final shot in 13x05 of Cas turning around to reveal himself to a shocked Dean, the slow zoom in on both their faces as they stare longingly at each other… in what way is that NOT romantic?
Never in any previous season of SPN have we had a consecutive run of 5 episodes where the overarching theme was all about Castiel. Castiel and grief and Dean’s love for him. Because that’s what it’s all been about. Sure we have had Jack’s story and Sam being a support figure and a source of conflict for Dean, and we’ve had some new bad guys, but ultimately, every single episode so far has been about CAS and how his death has affected Dean. This is what has stunned me. This is what I can’t wrap my head around. I guess being a Cas girl I am so used to being burned by this show that I can’t quite handle it.
Nothing is certain of course, and I don’t have a magic crystal ball telling me they are gonna go there, but with everything we have been given I can’t fathom how they CAN’T be going there now. I have never been more positive, and I only hope that the show continues to amaze me in this way. Judging by the promo’s for next weeks episode, I think I will once again come away with a huge grin on my face. Their reunion episode is COWBOYS FFS. I mean JESUS could they BE any less subtle?!?
I have rambled on for far too long, but I had to get this all off my chest. I am so very light and happy and gleeful about this all. I am basically Dean in next week’s episode! A giddy school girl fangirling over the thing I love and simultaneously revelling in the fact that the person I adore has finally returned to me. Oh Dean. Your happy face in the promo makes me happy. I just KNOW it’s going to be fantastic.
