![\"r71\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/r71.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\nDirected by Paul Shapiro
\nWritten by Eugenie Ross-Leming & Brad Buckner<\/i><\/p>\n
I won’t argue that “Route 666” is a great Supernatural<\/i> episode, because it has a lot of problems, but the reason it fascinates is because it is character-based. We are 13 episodes in now. We feel we know the brothers. We do, in many respects. Sometimes we see things through Sam’s perspective, sometimes Dean’s. Since their lives are so narrow, and we don’t see them in a lot of different contexts outside of hunting, and we only see them with one another, we make assumptions on them based on what we see. “Route 666” tells us that maybe our assumptions are wrong. It tells us there will always be more to discover. <\/p>\n
That’s what the episode is REALLY about. The entire thing is an excuse to deepen Dean’s character, and to basically “sting” us out of thinking we know him. Supernatural<\/i>, in almost every episode, has those two levels going on: the monster of the week, and how it reflects\/comments on the brothers’ relationship. Sometimes those connections are handled subtly and beautifully, almost invisibly, and sometimes it’s awkward. I don’t think “Route 666” is awkward, not necessarily. But its real interest is seeing Dean in another light, messing with our expectations of him, and getting an unexpected glimpse into his past. Because that storyline is so compelling and fascinating, the Monster seems almost incidental, a distraction from our REAL interest – and that IS awkward, because the monster here has to do with the violent history of race relations in America. So, you know, making that important topic seem like a “distraction” is not, perhaps, the best look. <\/p>\n
But never mind. Who gives a shit about the monster in this episode? It’s about Dean. It makes for a totally uneven episode, with the whole Cassie storyline being so huge that it threatens to overwhelm the entire narrative. No, it doesn’t “threaten”, it actually DOES overwhelm the whole narrative. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nMy reaction when I first saw the episode was strictly based on what it revealed about the character of Dean Winchester. I realized I had under-estimated him. I realized I had labeled him. I hadn’t expected him to have a Cassie in his past. I just assumed that the way Sam saw him (my slutty older brother) was actually the truth. Part of the fun of the episode, actually, is all of the FANTASTIC reaction shots from Jared Padalecki, who basically helps that entire narrative land.<\/p>\n
Both of these writers are still heavily involved with Supernatural<\/i>, unlike, say, the writers for “Bugs”<\/a>. Uneven or not, it has a compelling power all its own, totally separate from Monster Considerations. I’m not surprised both of these writers are still around.<\/p>\n I said in my first post about Dean Winchester<\/a> that the guy is like an erotic muse. He lives his life like it’s a burlesque act. And he is treated by everyone in the same way. So it’s a two-way street. He reacts to what he is getting, and puts it back out there. People always want MORE from him than he is willing to reveal, or they just keep LOOKING at him, and he doesn’t know what they want. He clamps down on huge aspects of himself, and prioritizes the sexual, because he can control that, and also, sometimes some good comes out of it and he actually gets laid by someone he wants to lay. So there are positive byproducts of being a walking erotic figure. But it is also a way to deal with the fact that, for whatever reason, he has no privacy, and he never even knew he could ASK for privacy. He grew up living in a motel room with his dad and his brother, all in the same room. Privacy is suspect. If you were dating Dean Winchester and you kept a journal, you had best put an unpick-able lock on it and bury it in your backyard, because Dean would be reading that shit every time you left the house. The burlesque act thing is important, too. A burlesque act is a slow reveal, and it’s a purposeful tease. Dean doesn’t set OUT to live his life like it’s a burlesque act, but it’s one of the ways he can control the information he gives out, and the information he receives. Dean does not withhold in order to draw people to him. He’s not manipulative like that. Dean withholds because everyone is always up in his grill and he needs some privacy<\/i>. Even his DREAMS are public events. (Dean to Sammy, when Lisa appears in his dream: “Stop looking at me.”) <\/p>\n Film critic Richard Schickel said, of Cary Grant:<\/p>\n Cary Grant, when playing his most famous characters, isn\u2019t<\/i> playing hard to get. He <\/i>is hard to get.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Dean doesn’t play hard to get. He IS hard to get. And it’s a struggle for him, because he is seen as “get-able” by everyone. That’s where a lot of the armor comes from, an acknowledgement that his boundaries suck for some reason, and people\/monsters are always wanting to get “in there”, and so he really tries to limit access to himself. <\/p>\n And in “Route 666”, what we see is how Dean has crafted his persona, in many ways, to fit his role as protector\/caretaker of his little brother. His little brother looked up to him (well, he doesn’t anymore, man is gigantic), and needed to be taken care of. So Dean crafted his personality towards Sam accordingly. He knew what to do, he was strong, he could cook and clean and do a load of laundry at the age of 9, probably, he could also handle being Dad’s second-in-command. These weren’t just things he did. They were who he WAS. Seen through Sam’s eyes, his older brother is an absolute MARVEL. Even now. Even now, it’s hard for Sam to stand up to Dean, and when he does, like in “Asylum”<\/a> and “Scarecrow”<\/a>, the whole world trembles on its axis. The power shift is noticeable and painful. It is a huge changing of the dance steps. <\/p>\n Sam thinks he knows Dean. In “Route 666”, we see him realize that he doesn’t really know his brother, that he has to re-adjust his opinion of his brother, that he now has to incorporate this new information into how he views his brother. That’s the fun of the episode, the guts. There is some great behavior all around, from both actors. As Dean realizes he is being revealed in a new and vulnerable way, and as Sam realizes what he is seeing, the tectonic plates shift. Dean hates it, Sam loves it. It humanizes his brother for him. It brings out a softness in Sam’s dealings with Dean. As far as Sam knows, his brother has been whoring around since he was in his late teens. That’s a true part of Dean, and (in a way), his most human part. It’s how he survived. Sex is fun, sex is relaxing, sex is a place where you can forget your troubles and actually be vulnerable. You can take off your many layers of clothes and be loved on and cared for. It’s crucial that Dean has that, and Dean knows it. It’s why he prioritizes it and makes time to go out and get laid if he wants that. Sam sublimates. Sam represses. I am actually concerned about both guys right now in Season 9, because they aren’t having enough sex. Or any sex. I know, right, there are other things to worry about, like the Mark of Cain and Abaddon – but I’m like: “Dudes, get laid. Please. Do yourself a favor. You’re miserable because of your broken relationship and because of Abaddon, but you’re ALSO miserable because you are not having orgasms as often as you should.” I know I’m ridiculous. I don’t care. I went on a week-long road trip to Memphis with a good friend and four days in we both got cranky because we were thrown off our schedule. We joked about it. “You want me to take a walk when we get back to the hotel room?” “Yeah, that would be good. I can’t take it anymore.” So that’s where my mind goes. Judge me not. Or judge me, I don’t care! <\/p>\n Sam had four years of “civilization” in college, when he dated one person and thought about engagement rings. As far as he knows, Dean’s life has been a string of one-night stands. As far as WE know at this point, that has been Dean’s life. <\/p>\n “Route 666” has so much fun with the burlesque act of the revealing of Dean in this episode. As Sam realizes the depths of what happened with Cassie, so do we. We’ll never look at Dean the same way again. <\/p>\n There are issues here, which I’ll get to. Maybe at this early stage in the game, the creators didn’t really anticipate the level of continuity they would eventually achieve with their other guest stars. At this point, Sam and Dean are the ONLY regulars (well, there’s Dad, but we never see him). There is no Bobby. There is no Rufus, or Garth, or Pamela, or Ash, or Ellen, or Jo, or Lisa, or any of the other many many characters who keep returning. In Season 1, it is totally the Sam and Dean show. So maybe at this point, they thought that a one-off relationship, handled in one episode, would be the feel of the show, as it is with other episodics. You know: in the course of 45 minutes, a lead character meets someone, has a full romance, and walks away at the end – and it’s never referenced again. That’s what happens here. It really stands out. Cassie is never mentioned again. It’s an enormous FAIL, in my book. Even just one reference, thrown in casually, to show that they remember, that the show actually is cumulative, would help. The only time Cassie is referenced again (that is, if you don’t count the similarity to the name Castiel – and you certainly could make an argument that these two people are the most important outside influences in Dean’s life, therefore their names are similar, go for it if it floats your boat) is in “The Monster at the End of This Book”, and that’s obliquely – when Dean is reading the book version of “Route 666” and gets shy and horrified that there’s a graphic sex scene in the book. “It shows me having sex,” he says to Sam. “I’m full frontal, dude.” (Hysterical. But also yet another example of Dean’s boundaries being compromised against his will. Dean can have no expectation of privacy, even in his most private moments.) <\/p>\n It is understandable why Lisa would be the one he would run to, when he finally does get out. Her son is a big draw. It’s an immediate family. He would understand his role better in that context. And the relationship would be kid-focused, which would be relaxing for him, and something he would understand. But you can’t just set up something as powerful and as effective as the relationship Dean had with Cassie, and who she was to him, and never reference it again. It’s not that kind of show!<\/p>\n Ah well. Mistakes were made. Moving on. <\/p>\n In “Route 666”, the monster is a big mysterious black truck, with no driver. This truck is also, apparently, racist. Because that’s what happens. Of course. There are a couple of interesting cinematic connections with this type of storyline, used visually throughout the episode. The main ones I can think of are:<\/p>\n Steven Spielberg’s Duel<\/em>.<\/p>\n The Hitcher<\/em> with C. Thomas Howell and Rutger Hauer<\/p>\n and, of course, Christine<\/em>. <\/p>\n There are legends of phantom vehicles<\/a>, as well as the Flying Dutchman<\/a>. So there is a connection to actual stories that are floating around out there. <\/p>\n What any of this has to do with the ugly history of racism in America is a mystery best left to the experts.<\/p>\n None of it matters. <\/p>\n The Monster is really beside the point here, way more than in any other episode. The whole point here is to peel back a layer of Dean Winchester’s history, and show us another side of him. That is what the episode is interested in. So if you’re on board with that, those are the scenes that matter, that is the Arc that has resonance.<\/p>\n Teaser<\/big> \nDude driving along a two-lane-blacktop at night. He futzes with the radio. He hears a weather guy announcing that there is some unseasonably cold weather going on. I’ll say. It’s, what, May now? Below zero temperatures? I wonder if they added that later because it’s freakin’ snowing two scenes later. The radio starts pulling in some static. At that point, the gigantic headlights appear in the dude’s rear view mirror from seemingly out of nowhere. A chase ensues. Small side note: there is some really great stunt driving in this episode. With as much screen-time as the Impala gets, it’s not really a car show. There aren’t a lot of chases. We get long shots of the Impala barreling through the landscape, or we see them pull up to the curb, all that, but it’s not a chase kind of show. “Route 666” must have been a lot of fun for the technical team, albeit a huge pain in the ass. You have a bunch of car crashes, two huge chase scenes, and it’s all quite effective. Like this shot, from the Racist Monster Truck’s perspective. <\/p>\n \n \nAnyway. Dude is run off the road, car flips through the air, crashes. The truck, practically snarling like a dragon, looks on from a distance, and then dematerializes into thin air. <\/p>\n 1st scene<\/big> \n Dad is referenced only casually in this episode, connected to Dean’s memory of when he met Cassie. After the emotional mind-blower of “Faith”<\/a>, things appear to have retracted a bit. Maybe they felt they needed to get back to whatever normal might be, even if it was only for a week. Dean almost died. Twice. Sam sent out an SOS call to Dad and never heard back. So maybe tracking down a lead about a spirit in Pennsylvania is their version of taking-it-easy. I like that we don’t know. <\/p>\n Sam isn’t noticing how engrossed his brother is with listening to his voice mail. Dean hangs up and walks with purpose to the driver’s side, saying, “We’re not going to Pennsylvania.” Sam, naturally, needs to be caught up on what the hell has changed in the last 20 freakin’ seconds. Dean says he just got a call from an “old friend” (and already, your spidey-sense tells you: “You have an old friend, Dean? You??”), whose dad died, and “she thinks it might be our kind of thing.” So when he says “she” more spidey-sense. Wait, you have an old friend who is a she? We want to know everything.<\/i> And the way Sam is staring at Dean over the hood of the Impala, wanting to be filled in, wondering what else he isn’t being told \u2026 Sam is us. <\/p>\n Dean isn’t biting, though. He is ready to go, and as he gets in the car, says to Sam, “She never would have called – never – if she didn’t need us.” And it’s that repetition of “never”, and how much he fills it with history and backstory, that is the hook. <\/p>\n Digression: A bit more of the same, but there’s more to say<\/big> There is power in withholding. Men use it and women use it. It looks different, depending on the gender. Dean withholds, and he does so out of self-protection, because everyone is all up in his grill at all times, looking at him, wanting stuff from him, assuming things about him, wanting a piece of him. Okay, fine, but you can’t have THIS. And NOBODY will hear about the panties. That is MINE. It’s almost feminine, what he’s doing. (And I’m using the stereotypes only because it is helpful when discussing story, especially mythic type stories that use archetypes, like Supernatural<\/i>). Men who withhold do so for various reasons: they don’t want to seem weak, they don’t want their families to worry, or they are trying to control others\/lure them in to some kind of web. That last brand of withholding is the Territory of the Sociopath, which clearly does not apply to Dean. If you withhold, never giving of yourself, certain types of women will be drawn into that web, trying to crack you, get close to you. That’s how you “do it”. Dean is not like that. He is an open book, and when someone gets under his skin, they lodge themselves there for all time, and so damn STRAIGHT he is careful about who he gets close to. <\/p>\n All of this, though, is only fully explicable after seeing more of the series. In looking back on my first time seeing “Route 666,” I thought: “Wait a second \u2026 wait a second \u2026 SHE dumped HIM?” <\/p>\n In a beautiful way, I was implicated because I had under-estimated him too. I had made assumptions about him based on the Burlesque Act he had been throwing my way. I had bought the smokescreen. It is VERY effective. It is ALL Jensen Ackles. <\/p>\n Of course people want Dean to be integrated, and healthy, and happy. But, you know, you don’t get to 9 seasons on seeing a Happy Character being all Happy. It is the unresolved stuff that is the engine of the show. <\/p>\n And finally, to reiterate: Dean does not withhold to draw people in. He withholds to keep people out. He is not PLAYING hard to get. He IS hard to get. He is wrapped up in that dynamic with himself, and so when Sam shows fascination that Dean would have had a serious relationship – Dean is \u2026 baffled. Wait, who the hell do you think I am, some cold douchebag? Why are you acting like me being in love is the weirdest thing in the world? Are you saying I’m not human? Why are you fucking excluding me from that circle? You think you’re the only one who can fall in love? In other words: he is not fully aware of the effect the burlesque act has on others. Especially not Sam. He set that dynamic up early, when they were kids: Sam should only see him in a certain light because Sam needed to feel safe. But now they’re men, and Sam is treating Dean’s love life like it’s a fascinating biology project under a microscope, and Dean is like, dude, get OFF me, so I was in love, it’s what people do, why is it weird, just stop, stop, stop. <\/p>\n Dean only knows what it is like to be himself. And when he thinks of Cassie, he is still hurt. Every scene he plays with her comes from that place of hurt. Not anger. But hurt. The fact that nobody (Sam, or the audience) would guess that about him is a testament to how well he has crafted his self-protective persona, but also how much it has isolated him. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that “Route 666” would come after “Faith”. In “Faith,” Dean faced death. He is still not a believer, but something about Layla has made him maybe re-think that, and his connection with her has opened him up. Once you start opening up, it’s a process that can’t be stopped, even if it’s scary and you don’t WANT it. Dean was left blasted-open at the end of “Faith,” and “Route 666” is a logical next step. <\/p>\n 2nd scene<\/big> It’s a dynamic I love. Both actors play the hell out of it. Watch how Dean withholds. Watch Sam’s reaction. He is loving seeing his brother in a different light. Wow, Dean is actually \u2026 off his game! What the hell?? <\/p>\n Dean says, casually, that he met Cassie a couple years ago while Dad was working a job, and “we went out for a couple of weeks.” He says it with no “tells”, it’s a straight-up fact. But Sam says, “You dated someone. For more than one night.” <\/p>\n \n \nDean doesn’t like being teased, and he also doesn’t see himself the way others see him. He is NOT a cool cocky love-em-and-leave-em guy, at ALL. Why would someone be SHOCKED that he dated someone? What, is he so \u2026 weird \u2026 that Sam couldn’t picture it? Who the hell does Sam think he is anyway? He gives Sam a look eloquent of all of that. And then says, “Am I speaking a language you’re not getting here?” I love that. Other people get to say “I dated someone” and they don’t get this huge weird reaction. Maybe with Cassie, for the only time, Dean felt like he was “inside”, no longer on the outside, no longer isolated with his family. He got to hang out with her, and take her out, and make out, and do what normal people do, and it was awesome<\/i> for him. He doesn’t realize how strange he seems to most everyone, how difficult it is to picture him in any context other than at the wheel of the Impala, with guns in the back. The Burlesque Act has worked too well. <\/p>\n Padalecki often has to react to wordless cues in “Route 666,” making huge transitions of understanding based only on Dean’s silent behavior, and he does a great job with these transitions. He is on Dean like a HAWK, which makes Dean squirm and twitch. Too much attention, stop looking at me. Dean is so taciturn in “Route 666,” that Sam has to wade through non-verbal cues to get the information he wants. (Reminder: Dean isn’t PLAYING hard to get. He IS hard to get. Huge difference.) Sam is curious as to how this mysterious Cassie person, whom he has never heard of, even knew to call Dean when she was in trouble – how does she know what they do? Dean doesn’t respond, at all. He doesn’t even look over at Sam. Awesome! Sam puts it together, silently, in that big-forehead-ed noggin of his, and explodes, “You TOLD her. The secret.” <\/p>\n It’s outrageous. He lied to Jess the entire time he was with her, because it had been drilled into him by both Dad and Dean that you do not tell people anything about what they do. He dated Jess for a YEAR. It was hard to keep that secret. (Although it would be harder for Dean: we’ve seen what a bad liar he can be. Sam is a MUCH better liar. So of course Dean would fall in love with someone and have to tell her. He couldn’t do it any other way, Love would not be possible without Truth and Openness. And of course Sam would be able to be legit in love with Jess, and never tell her anything, and he could have had a decades-long relationship with her and never told her. Which is super messed up, if you think about it. Don’t brag about being a good liar, Sam. Dean is the healthier one in this regard. Although the whole situation is so twisted that nobody is enjoying life or feeling healthy, no matter which way they go. They’re effed, either way.) <\/p>\n Sam is so pissed off that Dean, who had probably scolded Sam a million times about keeping the family secret, broke the pact, that he drops the Cassie questioning and goes to a very dismissive tone, “You go out with this chick in Ohio a couple of times and you tell her everything?”<\/p>\n That dismissive tone will come up again and again with the brothers when they have romantic interests. “You didn’t look for me in Purgatory because of some girl?” And etc. You can count on one hand the times the brothers are semi-normal about the other one having a love life. “Route 666” is one of them, and even there there are darker shadings, like using a phrase like “this chick” to dismiss an entire human being. But Dean doesn’t get offended. He barely reacts. He knows he probably deserves it, he regrets telling her the secret anyway, because that is how he lost her. He deserves to be yelled at, maybe. Or who gives a fuck. Yell away, Sammy. Dean doesn’t even realize how he is creating more mystery by withholding so strongly, the desire to withhold is a moral imperative here, and says, in response to Sam’s question, “Yeah. Looks like,” and hits the pedal to the medal, the roar of the Impala as it speeds up cutting off any further communication. <\/p>\n 3rd scene<\/big> Why I like Cassie: So. These are the many reasons I like Cassie. And I like seeing Dean in that context with her. He’s not shacking up with floozy drunks and nightmares, although he’s certainly banged many of them. But the ones who get inside his heart are substantial quality women. And, even more startling (seen through Sam’s eyes), this clear woman of quality loves Dean. Dean attracted someone like her<\/i>? Wow. <\/p>\n When we meet Cassie (Megalyn Echikunwoke), she is standing with the editor of the paper, a man named Jimmy (Alvin Sanders) and another man in what is clearly a newspaper office, filmed all noir style, with giant shadows on the wall of Venetian blinds and the paper’s name. I love the look. Supernatural<\/i> used to go all out with the Mood. <\/p>\n \n \nIt’s an informational scene, and what we get is: Cassie, whose father was the guy in the teaser, clearly works at the paper and wants to do some investigative reporting. Her colleague, standing beside her, says that two black people were killed on that same stretch of road in the last three weeks, and it would be irresponsible to not investigate the connection. The white guy in the scene is the Mayor (Gary Hetherington), who asks for discretion in whatever they report. Cassie is having none of it. They all obviously go way back. It’s a small town. <\/p>\n Jimmy and Cassie obviously see the murders in a racial context, and why wouldn’t they? The Mayor says, kindly but firmly, that grief is “clouding her judgment”. <\/p>\n As they talk, Dean and Sam enter. It’s beautifully lit, once again turning the brothers into silhouettes, as the series often does. They are not lit full-on. They are part of the shadow-world, the underbelly, the underclass, the invisibles. They are heroes, but they aren’t lit that way. The show would be insufferable if they were. Best to undercut it as much as possible.<\/p>\n \n \nThe Mayor and Jimmy walk off, leaving Cassie alone, and thoughtful. She turns and sees Dean. Her whole energy changes. And Dean is so vulnerable you think he might fall over. There is no defense. No hurt, even. Not yet. Just dealing with the fact that here she is again and dammit he is finding it hard to breathe. Slowly, almost as if she’s in a dream, a dream of her own past, she walks towards them. Her face is sad and surprised. Whatever went down between these two individuals was powerful. She was not “some chick” in Ohio. Sam picks up the vibe immediately and he stands there, looking on, his head not moving, but his eyes going from his brother to Cassie and back, downloading EVERYTHING. Like I said, he is us. We’re as new to “this Dean” as he is. <\/p>\n Everything here goes soft. Almost tentative. There is almost no language (one of the great strengths of Supernatural<\/i> which can often be a very talky show.) But you don’t need language here. Not with actors playing a scene the way they all are playing it. <\/p>\n \n \nSam doesn’t want to break the moment, and he also feels like maybe he shouldn’t be there, that whatever is going down is far too private. But what the hell, he’s THERE, so while he’s THERE, he takes it all in. <\/p>\n Something about Padalecki in this scene makes me almost choke up. It’s love. Maybe it’s because I have siblings, and we care for each other and want the best for each other. Dean probably hates every second of it, it is all so revealing, and maybe his status with Sam will somehow be changed because Sam is seeing him go all mushy, but he’ll worry about that later. It’s Sam’s reaction shots that help land this scene. He needs to be there, as a witness.<\/p>\n \n \nAll Dean and Cassie say is something along the lines of: Time stretches out, slows down. And Dean and Cassie are triangulated by Sam. It’s beautifully put together. <\/p>\n \n \n \n 4th scene<\/big> She has to do all of this as she is talking. Non-stop. And hitting her marks on the floor. And being a real character. And playing the subtext. <\/p>\n This shit is not easy. <\/p>\n \n \nCassie fills Sam and Dean in on what her dad told her: he swore he was being followed by a big black truck in the week before he died. Another mystery is that there was a big dent on his car, but no tracks other than his own. Her dad owned a car dealership and always drove a new car. No way was he driving around in a dented car. <\/p>\n Meanwhile: Cassie FINALLY hands the coffee mugs to Sam and Dean. <\/p>\n A small moment ensues, which isn’t even half a second long. But I like to point these things out. It helps to understand the actual job of acting and what it entails. <\/p>\n One of the most important things an actor has to do with any given script is justification<\/i>. Justification involves the actor asking questions, not to the director, but just to himself as he goes through the script. If you do NOT justify your behavior, you get a very GENERAL performance. And specificity is the name of the game with good acting. Actors sometimes justify the big stuff (“I murder my uncle because he murdered my father …”) and forget to justify the small stuff like why they don’t light the cigarette, or why they don’t drink the cup of coffee they just poured, or whatever. Everything must be justified, even if it’s not in the script. Why do you choose a certain cup to drink out of? Does it have sentimental value? Is it the only clean one? Are you a creature of habit? Make a choice, a decision, so you justify everything<\/i>. There is no piece of behavior so small that it doesn’t need to be justified. <\/p>\n So Dean has a moment here, when Cassie hands him the cup, which is a lesson in justifying. And he didn’t have to agonize over how to justify it. I’m sure he didn’t spend hours tormented at night, thinking, “WHY don’t I drink the coffee???” But he knew he had to have a reason. So he found one. And a good one. A character-based one. <\/p>\n When Dean is handed his cup of coffee, he glances down at the cup and the saucer and the little spoon, and his brow wrinkles a bit, maybe intimidated by the sheer DETAIL in that cup of coffee, and he feels out of place with it in his hands, and he glances over at Sam quickly to see how Sam is dealing with it (Sam has no problem with the cup of coffee, and looks totally at home holding it), and then Dean quietly puts the coffee mug on the table beside him without taking a sip. <\/p>\n \n That’s the end result. That’s what we see. But WHY this needs to happen is that a confrontation is coming up with Cassie, and Dean can’t be holding a coffee cup when that goes down. He needs his hands free. He, the actor, needs to clear the way for that moment. But Dean can’t put the coffee down for that reason because Dean doesn’t KNOW he’s going to have a confrontation with Cassie in about a minute. He has to have another reason for putting it down. This is how good Ackles is. He knows how to justify everything. Otherwise, he’s just an actor putting his cup down because he knows he has a confrontation coming up and he needs his hands free, and that’s not how Life works, that’s not how human beings react: “Hmmm, I may be having a fight in about 2 seconds and won’t want a coffee cup in my hands for that.” Being able to portray emotion is extremely important for actors. But being able to justify everything is even more important. <\/p>\n I wrote this in a comment elsewhere, I’ll just paste it here. So here is the process of Ackles’ justification, as I see it, seen through his practical eyes, and then through the experience of the character, post-justification: <\/p>\n Jensen Ackles\u2019 thought process: \u201cI cannot be holding a coffee cup during this next moment with Cassie. I need my hands free. But I have to have a reason to put it down. Because human beings have reasons for everything they do, however banal. So why does Dean put the coffee cup down?\u201d<\/p>\n Or, more likely, it went something like this: “Need to get rid of coffee cup. Why do I put it down?” <\/p>\n Jensen Ackles does his justifying beforehand, so that then we get Dean\u2019s thought process: \u201cHm. This coffee is way too complicated and girlie for me \u2013 sugar cubes and saucers and a little spoon and I don\u2019t know how to drink it \u2013 what the hell \u2013 how is Sam drinking it?\u201d (quick glance over) “Oh, Sam looks normal drinking it \u2026 but \u2026 I’m also nervous because Cassie is right there, and it’s all a bit much for me, I can\u2019t deal with complicated coffee rituals right now.\u201d<\/p>\n If I were teaching an acting class, I might point out that moment as how specific you have to be in every choice you make. Take NOTHING for granted. That level of specificity separates the men from the boys in a successful acting career.<\/p>\n Cassie is baffled and upset about what is going on. She has just lost her father. She is a logical person, and when Sam mentions a “vanishing truck”, she rolls her eyes at what she has become. It’s awful, to not be able to explain<\/i> what you think is going on. And considering how she basically threw Dean out on his ass when he told her what he did in his life, it took a lot for this fiery independent woman to reach out. You can tell, in her almost shame-faced response here. She can’t really look at Dean, not directly, because what she is talking about is what they fought about. She says, hesitantly, “I’m a little skeptical about this \u2026 ghost stuff \u2026 or whatever it is you guys are into.”<\/p>\n Up until now, Dean has been listening quietly (albeit confused about his complicated coffee cup), and perhaps a little bit overwhelmed being in her presence. But that comment breaks through, that comment touches on the original hurt, and he reacts, without thinking. He laughs. “Skeptical. If I remember I think you said I was nuts.” It’s bitter. Sam looks over at Dean. The wheels click-click-clicking \u2026 Of course Sam assumed that Dean was probably a jackass, afraid of intimacy, maybe cheated on her, you know, the usual \u2026 but something else is going on beneath the surface. <\/p>\n More triangulatory editing of close-ups: Cassie looking at Dean, Dean looking at Cassie, and then Sam, looking at both of them. Sam has to intervene, keep things moving, break the tension, get everyone to focus. Because there is a racist truck on the loose and there’s no time for a love spat. Or something like that. <\/p>\n \n \n \n \nCassie’s Mom comes in, and she is played by Kathleen Noone, whose career goes way way back. I remember her from a Quantum Leap<\/i> episode back in the day (which also, coincidentally, had to do with racism). Sam and Dean stand when she enters. They may be all fucked up but at least they have manners. Cassie is solicitous and gentle towards her mother, and tries to introduce Sam and Dean, but her mother is shocked and lost in a private world of grief and fear. She is not interested in meeting Sam and Dean and she is hurt that people are in her house in this time of mourning. That’s all there in her behavior. She’s a wonderful actress. <\/p>\n \n \nDean is meeting Cassie’s mom for the first time. Cassie has not introduced him as her ex or anything like that, just a “friend”. But he had probably heard a lot about her, and a lot about what it was like for Cassie in her childhood and all that. Cassie is pretty forthcoming. She does not soft-pedal her anger about racism, and she has experienced it, and Dean would have heard about it. It would have come up in their “getting to know you” talks in their relationship. There’s a quiet acknowledgement of all of that in some of Dean’s reaction shots later in the episode. He’s not put off by her anger. He gets it. But it’s weird: you’re meeting the mother of the woman you once loved, and you can’t even really acknowledge it or enter into it the way a normal person would. Dean is on the outside again. He says quietly, to Cassie’s mom, that they’d like to talk to her for a minute, and she is completely affronted by this request, and almost physically recoils from him out of the room. Nice moment. <\/p>\n 5th scene<\/big> \n 6th scene<\/big> The Mayor is trying to be comforting, he knows she’s upset. We learn that the guy in the crash was Jimmy, the editor, the guy in the first scene. Poor Cassie. She is demanding that the Mayor do something about this, show the community it matters to him, that the fact that three black men were killed on the same stretch of road is a high priority to the community. <\/p>\n \n \nSurrounded by chaos, and obviously that unseasonably cold weather, Cassie reads the Mayor the riot act, all as Sam and Dean quietly approach from behind, looking on. She clearly is handling the situation. <\/p>\n The Mayor will not close the main road in town, not for this, these were accidents. <\/p>\n Dean looks around at the wreckage, throwing a glance at Sam. Once again, there were only one set of tire tracks. Cassie is still on the warpath, and goes for the jugular, “Would you close the road if the victims were white?” They choose to do a quick cut-away to Dean hearing this comment, and then glancing at the Mayor for his reaction. I mentioned those cut-away shots earlier, and it helps bring the past back to life, a past we never saw: he has history with that part of her, he knows it well, and he was understanding about it. He definitely knows something is not right here, and the pattern is black victims. Dean doesn’t believe in coincidence. <\/p>\n The Mayor balks at her comment. He says he is not a racist and she should ask her mother about that, SHE’LL tell you I’m not racist. It’s a curious comment, and everyone reacts to it, silently. What the hell are you talking about, white boy. <\/p>\n 7th scene<\/big> \n \nWhat the hell is that wooden bird doing there?<\/p>\n God, I love this show. <\/p>\n Next comes a super hot scene of Dean and Sam looking in the mirror, wearing suits, putting on their ties. I love men, especially when they put on ties in the mirror. Not sure if I’ve mentioned that. It makes me go weak in the knees. <\/p>\n \n \nDean is quiet and stoic and doesn’t even know he’s withholding. Inside it may be a clusterfuck, and he’s losing control of the situation, and he was in love with that woman, and now he is remembering why, did you see how she laid into the Mayor, she was awesome, but he’s not gonna “share” to Sam about that. Get outta here. Sam, however, is on the trail. And because Dean ain’t talking, Sam can’t stop talking. <\/p>\n Sam joins his brother at the mirror, saying, “I’ll say one thing for her. She’s fearless.”<\/p>\n Maybe Dean will say something? Something that will help Sam put the mystery together? <\/p>\n Dean doesn’t even look over, just keeps focusing on his tie, murmuring, “Mm-hm.”<\/p>\n Sam, having the time of his life, says kiddingly, “I’ll bet she kicked your ass a couple of times.”<\/p>\n Dean throws Sam a slow dead-eyed look. It’s really warm and welcoming. <\/p>\n \n Sam keeps babbling, and teasing, putting on his tie, saying, “What’s interesting is you guys never really look at each other at the same time. You look at her when she’s not looking, she checks you out when you look away\u2026” Dean is not amused. This is an infringement on his private personal space. Get OUT of there. Stop LOOKING at me. Let me BE.<\/p>\n \n Being faced with such silence, Sam sums it all up, musingly, putting the finishing touches on the knot in his tie: “It’s just an interesting observation in an observationally interesting way.”<\/p>\n hahahaha <\/p>\n Dean has had it and says that maybe they have more important things to deal with right now. And Sam says, all innocence, “Hey, if I’m hitting a nerve.”<\/p>\n Dean walks out of the room. <\/p>\n \n It makes me love them both. <\/p>\n 8th scene<\/big> Two old geezers sit at a table outside, peeling shrimp, and Sam and Dean present themselves as reps from Jimmy’s insurance company. <\/p>\n \n \nThey happened to film this scene on a day with spectacular natural lighting: heavy grey clouds and a gleam of light at the horizon. So it’s probably 5:30 a.m. when they’re filming this. No wonder everyone looks sleepy and cranky and vulnerable. And there is an amazing reaction shot of Sam with a fishing boat slowing going by in the background. There’s no do-over for a moment like that, you have to capture it the first time.<\/p>\n \n Dean asks if Jimmy ever mentioned seeing a big black truck. The white guy says, “What the hell you talkin’ about?” But the black guy has a silent reaction, before saying, “A big scary monster-looking thing? I have heard of a truck like that.”<\/p>\n \n \nThe black guy tells them that back in the 60s a series of black men were killed, “and the story goes” a big black truck was involved. (There are some dreamy-nightmare-y flashbacks sprinkled throughout the episode, sudden visions of the truck roaring along in the dark, headlights blaring, or scenes of what went down back then.) The guy says, “I’m not sure they even really looked for whoever did it. There was a time when this town wasn’t too friendly to all its citizens.” His comment is a small but sharp rebuke to his skeptical white friend, who gets uncomfortable. He has been schooled. <\/p>\n Dean and Sam nod, and walk off. The plot has thickened. <\/p>\n Great scene here, technically: it’s a great example of matching the script to the visuals. Some scenes need to be cut up in chunks, you need those eloquent close-ups for the emotional information. But some scenes are best played out in one. It’s preferable that the audience doesn’t notice these things explicitly. You can be too much of a showoff with your camera moves. But here is a great example of how it works when it works really well. The camera is obviously on a dolly track and as the guys head to the Impala, the channel behind them, they walk to the car, the camera following. In the foreground, we see fishing nets hanging, big barrels, the detritus of a fishing dock. <\/p>\n \n \nAs they walk, they talk. Both Padalecki and Ackles have spoken about how much they love it when the show goes this way, when they get to do a big chunk of text in one fell swoop. It’s like doing a play. Not breaking up a scene into little chunks is a great way to breathe life into a scene, especially a moment like this which is potentially boring – where they are just discussing the Lore. It also places them in a larger context of the world they have entered into: fishing boats, row boats, a trash can with a flickering fire, people strolling by behind them holding fishing poles. They are not isolated in their own closeups. They are part of a larger world. <\/p>\n So anyway, they throw around ideas about the truck. Maybe it’s being infused by a spirit, same way as the Flying Dutchman (which will come up later in “Red Sky at Morning”). Sam notes that the victims were all black men, but Dean goes deeper: it’s more than that, they are all connected to Cassie. <\/p>\n The mere mention of Cassie puts Sam on the trail again. It’s basically driving him crazy that Dean isn’t opening up to him. He wants to know what went down, and he wants to know how Dean feels about it. He never would have put Dean with someone like Cassie, and he never would have incorporated “heartbreak” or “intimacy” into his understanding of his brother. Sam says that Dean needs to go “work that angle”, the “why are the killings connected to Cassie” angle, and Dean’s all business, “yup, on it”, and Sam is not able to resist talking about it. Because he idolizes his brother, he has him on a pedestal, and what is happening with Dean right now is FASCINATING to him. He can’t resist poking the bear. Which goes over as well as you might imagine. <\/p>\n Padalecki has to create all of his transitions here for himself, because Dean has almost no lines. Sam has to assess the behavior in front of him, and adjust. Hard, and Padalecki makes it work. Dean is about to get into the Impala, when Sam says, “Oh, and you might want to mention that other thing.” Dean stops and looks at Sam, and you can see: he literally has NO idea what Sam is talking about. It is a great example of Dean being completely clueless about what he is actually feeling – because he doesn’t have emotional language in his vocabulary and therefore it doesn’t exist for him. He doesn’t even think he IS hiding anything. That’s how dumb he is about himself. He needs Sam. He doesn’t even know it. His expression is: “Wait, what else am I supposed to talk to Cassie about?” <\/p>\n Ha. <\/p>\n Sam says, as though he is talking to a toddler, that Dean needs to address “the serious unfinished business,” whatever it might be. <\/p>\n Dean goes inward for a second, thinking about it. He knows Sam is right. But what the hell is he supposed to do about it? The whole thing hinges on the fact that Cassie dumped him. He’s not pissed at her, not at all. He’s HURT. Everything that happens between them is from a place of HURT, not anger. Dean can deal with anger. But hurt? No. No. No. It doesn’t even exist. Sam doesn’t know that that’s there: he assumes that Dean probably ran away, dumped her when they got too close, and is now regretting it. That’s the only context in which he could understand his brother in a relationship. This show is good at messing with our assumptions about the character of Dean Winchester. It says: “Do not think you know everything about this man. You don’t.” It’s STILL doing that. Think of “Bad Boys” from Season 9. I had assumed that Dean was precocious sexually. You know, racing to lose his virginity, maybe Dad paid for a hooker for his 16th birthday, who the hell knows, something along those lines. “Bad Boys” added another angle of the prism, and we saw Dean’s sexual innocence. He was 16, 17, hadn’t even kissed anyone yet. It was amazing, great nuance, made total sense. <\/p>\n Dean’s reaction to Sam’s questioning is so silent and agonized and filled with refusal to open up, that Sam addresses it directly. No more teasing. “What is going on between you two.”<\/p>\n We then are treated to a symphony of behavior from Dean. He wants nothing more than to vanish into the nearby river and avoid this conversation, but Sam is not giving up, so he concedes, “Okay, maybe we were a little bit more involved than I said.” Then there is a very funny symphony of response from Sam, who nods, quickly, says, “Oh.” and then gives Dean a look like, “And?” Sam seriously looks like a gossiping housewife trying to get deets out of her friend over the bridge table. <\/p>\n Dean can’t escape that look, and concedes more ground, saying, “Okay. A lot more. Maybe.” <\/p>\n Next up comes a shot I ADORE: the camera moves back and forth between Dean and Sam, line to line to line. You get whiplash, it’s a tennis match, there are no cuts, but it’s great! It requires great timing on the part of both actors, within the millisecond. So we see Dean, and he looks pretty haggard, truth be told, wrinkles in his forehead, staring up (and up) at his brother. <\/p>\n Back, forth, back, forth goes the camera. Supernatural<\/i> doesn’t use this technique often. It makes me excited when they do.<\/p>\n Dean says, “I told her the secret, about what we do. And I shouldn’t have.”<\/p>\n Sam is not getting it, and is being all soothing and supportive, saying “Look, man, everyone’s gotta open up to someone some time.”<\/p>\n Dean says, “Yeah, well, I don’t. It was stupid to get that close. I mean, look how it ended.”<\/p>\n This is totally new ground for the brothers. It’s awesome. This might be my favorite scene in the episode, the walk to the car, then the back-forth-back-forth right here. <\/p>\n Sam then gives Dean a huge smile, which \u2026 I mean, I would feel trapped if someone was looking at me like this.<\/p>\n \n \nI would say “back the fuck off” when confronted with such a knowing understanding smile. Poor Sam! He’s just trying to figure it out and trying to be there for Dean.<\/p>\n Dean feels the pressure in that look, it’s way too much, too much focus on him, enough, enough, and he pleads (yes, he PLEADS), “Would you STOP?” <\/p>\n There is then a big silent stand-off, with Sam waiting for more information, and Dean waiting for him to back off. Dean says, “Blink or something.” But Sam now gets it. Or he thinks he does. He’s not sure why he didn’t catch on before.<\/p>\n He says, “You loved her.” <\/p>\n Best part is, Dean rolls his eyes, says, “Oh God,” and moves to open the door. <\/p>\n This is even MORE information for Sam, so he pushes in, saying, almost accusatory, “You were IN love with her. But you DUMPED her.”<\/p>\n \n \nDean can’t even respond, because Sammy has it so wrong and he doesn’t know how to correct it. He just sort of stands there and squirms, in abject misery. And Sam finally has the whole picture. (See what I mean, about Padalecki having to basically have a conversation with himself? But Ackles is giving him so much in all that behavior.) Sam looks like he’s been slapped across the face. He can’t believe it. He says, “Oh wow. She dumped you.”<\/p>\n Dean barks, “Get in the car.” <\/p>\n I don’t blame Dean for wanting out of that conversation. Also, there’s that subtle dark twistiness in it: Dean’s role was set for him by his Dad, and he played it out obediently. Sam’s assumption that Dean must have been the dump-er doesn’t come from out of nowhere, but you can see how it would be hurtful to know your brother thinks you’re such an asshole that OBVIOUSLY you dumped this amazing woman. And it doesn’t even matter that Sammy got it all wrong. It’s the perception that’s out there, the low estimate of Dean’s abilities. <\/p>\n 9th scene<\/big> She lets him in and you can see him kind of hunch his body inwards so that they won’t touch. Once Dean is touched, he means business. He can’t deal with it otherwise. They both are awkward. She tells him about putting together a tribute for Jimmy at the paper, and she is “trying to find the words”. Again, I like that she has a job, a life, and is doing that stuff when Dean shows up. She’s not doing something generic like cooking, or watching television, just waiting for the knock to come. This shit matters. It grounds us. Cassie tells Dean a little bit about Jimmy’s history. When he started his career, the local paper had a “whites only” policy and Jimmy worked to change that, and didn’t stop until he became editor. <\/p>\n Dean listens, propped up against a wall. He doesn’t know what to do with himself, his body, his hands, the way he takes up space, and he needs to stay far away from her physically. He is basically about to spin out into space. She says to him, friendly, almost hopeful, “Where’s your brother?” (Is Sam arriving soon to save us from our awkward silence?) <\/p>\n So. Even though Dean pleaded with Sam to “STOP” back at the car, he heard what Sam said, he heard Sam’s advice, and he knows he is going to take it. He has to. He doesn’t know how to address it. But he is aware now that he MUST address it, and it completely changes what he looks like, practically. A couple expressions flicker over his face in this particular scene that we never see from him again. Ever. It’s a loss. Because in those looks of uncertainty is also possibility. <\/p>\n We know how Dean feels about being the center of attention, and being the center of someone’s attention is part of being in love. It’s strange. So Cassie bringing up Sam is meaningful: it takes the pressure off for a second, lets out the air of the moment, as though Sam is in the room with them. Dean says he’s trying to find a connection between the victims. His voice is soft, not his normal cadence. <\/p>\n They are standing across the room from each other, shown in a great shot inserted into the middle of the scene. Could they be more far apart?<\/p>\n \n \nNo matter what they say, they return to their awkward silence. <\/p>\n So Dean, brave Dean, even though every cell in his body resists, brings it up. He makes himself the center of attention, in other words. And watch Ackles play the scene. Watch how he is operating from hurt, not anger. Even when he gets angry, it’s BECAUSE he’s hurt. It changes everything, it changes the playing of the scene to have that “hurt” being the motivating factor. Otherwise, it would all be yelling, self-righteous yelling. <\/p>\n Dean, clinging to the wall basically, says, “So, just then, why’d you ask where my brother was?”<\/p>\n She says it’s nothing and now that he’s started talking he has to go on with it, and all things considered, I think he does a very good job. He says, “Could it be without him here it’s just you and me, and not you me and Sam which would be easier?”<\/p>\n Cassie is defensive, she’s not sure what he’s getting at, retorts, “It’s not easier\u2026”<\/p>\n There is then a quick reaction shot of Dean, real quick, and much of his stuff can’t really be captured in screen grabs because you lose the fluidity, the change of expression, but whatever goes on in his face in that quick reaction shot is vulnerable in a way we haven’t seen. He’s almost smiling. That’s the adrenaline. The feeling of stepping into someplace New, brand new. He has ZERO idea where they are going right now. And he started it. <\/p>\n \n Cassie tries to reach out and explain further, and Dean cuts her off, chickening out, and he’s friendly about it, but he’s shutting everything down. He finally is able to move, over to the desk, he can’t look at her right now and he needs to put more distance between them (justify your blocking!). He says “Forget it, we’ll keep it strictly business.” and he says it in a “Yup, we totally understand each other” tone. He’s basically saying it as though agreeing with something SHE said which is bogus and manipulative. <\/p>\n She calls him on it, saying all this typical woman stuff, stuff from the angry-woman playbook: “Any time we get close, you shut the door on me, you crack a joke \u2026” It is her version of what went down, it is what drove her crazy about who he was. But that’s not how Dean remembers it, and that is actually not what is going on right in front of us right now. She’s being unfair and she knows it.<\/p>\n The tone here from him, as the argument intensifies, is one of HURT. He’s almost pleading with her. Listen to his voice placement on “I was totally up front with you,” and how desperate he looks. A less sensitive actor would have just shouted in her face. Ackles always goes for the more vulnerable choice. He also plays the cover-up of the vulnerability, but that vulnerability HAS to be present, or we got nothing. He goes on and on about how she “shut the door” and then “buried the key” and I love how she says “Are we done with this metaphor yet?” It’s such a WRITER’S thing to say: that’s good character writing. <\/p>\n The argument is heated, fast, and still awkward. It’s tough because here is where we learn what went down, that he told her he hunted ghosts and she reacted badly. She thought he was crazy or looking for a reason to dump her. Dean can’t believe what he’s hearing. YOU dumped ME. Don’t cast yourself as the hurt party here, sister. That’s NOT how it went down. You HURT ME, is his subtext, in every single line. Vulnerable. Not a lot of actors want to show that part of themselves. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nCape Girardeau, Missouri<\/i><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nAt a ratty little gas station, Sam stands with a map on the roof of the Impala, looking for ways to bypass construction, and talking out loud about it to his brother, who stands behind him on the phone. Dean is listening to a message, stoic and still. The brothers are trying to get to Pennsylvania, and I love that we never know why they are going there. There are hunts we don’t know about, there are stop-offs we don’t hear about. Life goes on for them, even when we are not watching. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nDean walks around like the Star of his own Private Movie (well, we all do, but some do it more than most), and he is in control of the narrative, he is in control of what he shows us (and Sam). You only get to know what I want you to know.<\/em> It’s one of the only ways he gets to patrol his own boundaries. The man is such an open book, and everyone (strangers, family, demons) think they know him, at a glance. People size him up instantly, and either write him off as weird\/too much\/inappropriate or lick their chops wanting to swallow him whole. His persona is so strong. But he has personal secrets, and by withholding them, he gets to keep some control over his own damn narrative. There’s also the fact that he cannot really incorporate pain and loss into his understanding of life; his confidence in the goodness of life was shattered at the age of 4. So any pain on TOP of that original pain frays him, flays him, destabilizes him utterly, and must be buried. It’s like he got “tapped out” at the age of 4, and every pain that comes after that is trying to seep into an organism that is already full-on saturated. Trauma can do that. You can’t let anything else in, because you’re all full already, thankyouverymuch. There is indeed a straw that breaks a camel’s back. So Cassie is a painful memory, because she dumped him. She rejected him when he opened up to her. Dean will always course-correct with these problems in a dramatic way: Okay, you hurt me? I will never let anyone in again ever again. <\/em> If she hadn’t called him, he would have taken her memory to his grave and nobody would ever have known she even played a part in his life. <\/p>\n
\nDean drives, and he is a completely blank wall. Sam sits in the passenger seat, and has probably been mulling over all of the questions he wants to ask for 2 hours or so, and finally gets the courage to broach the subject. It’s not easy with Mr. Stoic over there. Sam takes a tone that is a mistake. But you certainly don’t blame him. He sees his brother in a certain way. Dean sleeps with women all the time and never sees them again. Dean was rude to Jess the only time he met her. Dean doesn’t seem to need love. He probably speaks of it in a scornful way. He scorned suburbia in “Bugs”. “Honey, I’m home!” Dean wants to put a gun to his head. He likes being an outlaw. It suits him. So Sam, in asking questions, is teasing Dean, not realizing he’s poking at a painful memory. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nWe’re with Sam at this point. Who the hell is Cassie? Dean has given us nothing, except for that eloquent second “never”, which speaks to a painful ending of some kind. The next scene, we meet up with Cassie, before Sam and Dean actually arrive. Which is kind of a cool thing, structure-wise. We get to see her in her own element, before Dean and Sam stroll into the picture. We get to see her in operation outside of her relationship to Dean. That doesn’t often happen with romantic characters, women in particular. <\/p>\n
\n— She is a specific person. She is not generic.
\n— She has a whole life outside of her romance with Dean.
\n— She has a job, and she is passionate about her job. She works hard at it.
\n— She is part of a community, and she loves that community. She understands the community’s violent past, and its poor history in terms of racism, but she works to make things better. She’s not gonna move. This is her home.
\n— Sam says to Dean in private that she seems “fearless”, and we can see it. She is a fighter. Maybe Sam is still so intimidated by Dean that he can’t see how anyone could have the guts to break his heart and walk away from him. He can’t picture Dean getting in a fight with a woman, arguing stuff out, being called on his bullshit, whatever, all of the stuff that happens in relationships. He has completely limited his conception of Dean. I think he likes Cassie because she is a substantial person. And it makes him see Dean differently. When Dean fell in love, he chose a good one. You can tell a lot about a person based on the mate he chooses for himself. We need to re-adjust our thoughts about Dean, based on the character of Cassie. It is a welcome shading of character. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n“Dean.” “Hey, Cassie \u2026” (Long silence.) “Sorry about your dad.” (Long silence.) “Me too.”<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nCassie serves Dean and Sam coffee in a darkly lit clearly genteel parlor-type space. The house is an old Victorian-style house, with a wraparound porch. We learn later it’s Cassie’s moms’ house and she’s been staying there with her since her dad died. Her mother is freaked out and afraid. Dean and Sam sit on the couch (it’s really more of a settee, and both of them look totally out of place, all gangly and super male in that delicate frou-frou female environment.) Cassie enters the room, and walks towards the camera, and I just have to applaud this actress for the complicated business she has to do with this damn coffee serving. It’s a freakin’ full ballet. She enters the room with a tray, holding a teapot, two cups, saucers, and, I don’t know, the Dead Sea Scrolls, there’s so much shit on that tray it’s hard to tell. She stands right in the camera, with Dean and Sam visible behind her, and she pours out the coffee into the two cups. Then she walks back into the room, over to the little end-table, where there must be a bowl of sugar cubes, and puts some sugar cubes into both cups. Stirs with little spoon. Hands a cup to each brother.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nWe have a long and excellent panning shot of a just-crashed car, wheels still spinning, a bloody guy in the driver’s seat, and the Racist Truck snarling up on the road before dematerializing. We don’t see another chase. Just the end result. And the long panning shot is efficient, elegant, and very complicated – took hours of planning and execution. But it’s worth it. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nThe next morning, we see Cassie and the Mayor out at the crime scene of the crash, with yellow tape fluttering in the foreground (I love how they use yellow tape in that way, it’s a motif). There’s the crashed car and an ambulance and EMTs and it’s chaos. And again, we see Cassie alone, without Sam and Dean, not yet. The show is prioritizing her, highlighting her status, her personhood, which is why it is disappointing they didn’t realize you had to at LEAST call back to her, once, twice, at LEAST reference that the damn woman existed. Hell, in Season 6, for God’s sake, Dean references “Missouri” from “Home” in Season 1. It helps give the show continuity. It lets us know that they remember what they have created. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nMotel room alert! Although this doesn’t look like a motel room. It seems that Dean and Sam are staying in a dilapidated rooming house straight out of a Tennessee Williams play (speaking of Missouri). It looks like some old Victorian B&B that hasn’t had a paint job since 1912. It’s fantastic. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nDean and Sam go to question some of Dead Jimmy’s friends at a fishing joint along a river. Dean looks like a big kid in his suit, they don’t fit him the way they fit Sam, and his tie is wonky. I love that. Ackles himself looks great in suits: this is DEAN not quite being able to pull it off. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nCassie sits at a desk in her mom’s study, with blue light showing through the slats in the shutters (it’s gonna be a common look throughout the episode, blues and blacks.) There’s a knock at the door, and she opens it, seeing Dean standing there. <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n