#literally he spoke over dean to decline a slice of the dude's birthday cake

[mittensmorgul]

Mug Meta

Now we all know that Dean hardly ever turns down free food or drinks, even when Sam declines on his behalf. I mean, the cake in 10.15 that Dean wanted but Sam was like NO THANK YOU WE DON’T WANT CAKE and then gave Dean a facial expression to enforce that:

Dean sneaked a bit of icing anyway, but yeesh... So in 14.04 I find it interesting that Sam didn’t trod on Dean’s acceptance of a mug of cider even if he didn’t really want it himself. But I also find Stuart’s mom’s choice of mugs here interesting, as well:

She placed them down like this between Sam and Dean, with the Flash mug-- i.e. the one that probably belonged to her son-- in front of Sam, and a mug covered in cats-- i.e. the one that was most likely to be HER mug, the older woman wearing a blouse covered in pretty pink and blue roses, the mother-- in front of Dean.

And as soon as her back is turned, Dean goes out of his way to claim the Kid’s Mug, leaving the Mom Mug for Sam.

And I mean there’s nothing inherently “grown up” about having a mug covered with cartoon kitties, or inherently childish about having a Flash mug. But the fact we’re being led to assume the comic book character mug does indeed belong to the “adult child” in the house, it’s inviting this comparison.

I mean, it could be as simple as Dean not wanting to use the cat mug because he’s canonically allergic to cats, but through the rest of this episode we saw him enjoying indulging in not having to be the parental figure for once, enjoying Halloween like a kid, getting into the costumes, and commenting on Sam’s lack of enjoyment in the holiday and inability to see it from a perspective of childhood fun, so I’m enjoying yet another reminder that Dean is actively choosing the superhero fun thing again.