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jensensitive · 2 years ago

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The Homoerotic Subtext of Dean and Cas in Early Season Four (pt. 1)

4x01 Lazarus Rising

Note: I don't agree with Eric Kripke about a lot of things. That man is my nemesis. But I do see and appreciate hella gay subtext (key word subtext. I don’t how much of it was intentional and I don’t think he had any plans to go anywhere with it. I also don’t think there’s anything intrinsically wrong with that but will leave it up to everyone else to have their own feelings ♥)

[Warnings for references to rape that are made within the episode and Dean's racist porn and the theme of compromised bodily autonomy]

Cas is an angel who saved Dean from Hell, which, to quote Dean, “Is Fabio on that paperback?” The build up and expectation that Cas is going to be monstrous and bad only for the dramatic rug-pull that he’s an angel who sees Dean for who he is and thinks he deserved to be saved, who tells him good things do happen, is very epically romantic in its structure.

We also have to remember that Cas is not framed strictly as a good guy at first. He's on par with Ruby, and in the same way, it’s ambiguous as to whether he’s good or bad, right or wrong; we’re meant to be suspicious of him in a similar way to how we are Ruby. and Dean and Cas and Sam and Ruby are very much cast in parallel right from the beginning, as I’ll point out.

Our Season opener song being "You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC– we hear this directly before Dean wakes up in his coffin fighting for air, crawls out of his grave and sees he’s at ground zero of what looks like an explosion or natural disaster of some kind. I think the song can apply to both Dean and Cas and Sam and Ruby.

Taking more than her share, had me fighting for air She told me to come, but I was already there 'Cause the walls start shaking, the Earth was quaking My mind was aching and we were making it And you shook me all night long Yeah, you shook me

(RUBY: Sam, human souls don't just walk out of Hell and back into their bodies easy. The sky bleeds, the ground quakes. It's cosmic.)

[images:]

Dean breathing heavily on his back on the ground in the grass

Dean in his t shirt walking towards the gas station that says "Lubrication"

Dean with his mouth open and breathing heavily in the gas station

Dean lifting his shirt in front of the mirror

Dean seeing the handprint in the mirror

A handprint branding into his skin. Dean had Cas’s handprint branded onto him.

Shir Hashirim / Song of Songs 8:6-- Place me like a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm, for love is as strong as death, zeal is as strong as the grave; its coals are coals of fire of a great flame [Tanakh]

Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. [NRSV]

Anna puts her hand on the brand when she and Dean have sex in 4x10.

[images:]

Dean's oral fixation, he has a candy bar in his mouth

Dean's porn, with the word "Love Potion"

straps that say "Strap-on" behind Dean at the register

"In the Shadow of the Valley" by Lost Weekend Western Swing Band playing on the radio when Cas tries to talk to Dean in the gas station.

A service station/gas station/filling station/pumping station whatever you wanna call it being where Dean and Cas first “meet,” and Cas first tries to talk to him. Gas stations were popular for gay cruising spots, and because of this, there are gay bars and clubs named things like “The Pumping Station.” This was especially true in 2008 before hookup apps.

Cas rebuilt Dean’s entire body-- BOBBY: Dean. Your chest was ribbons, your insides were slop. And you've been buried four months. Even if you could slip out of hell and back into your meat suit-- DEAN: I know, I should look like a Thriller video reject.

[image: Dean showing Bobby the handprint]

DEAN: And then this. (He strips his jacket, pulls up his sleeve to reveal the brand.) BOBBY: (standing) What in the hell? DEAN: Yeah, it’s like a demon just yanked me out. Or rode me out.

(gay joke illustrating Kripke’s frame of mind

Secret Ruby when Dean and Sam hug: So are you two like... together?

the rape references also really start to escalate in season four after Dean comes back

DEAN: (advancing) So what now, I'm off the hook and you're on, is that it? You're some demon's bitch-boy? I didn't want to be saved like this.)

Establishing his lack of faith in good forces so that it can be dramatically challenged by Cas in the fourth act. DEAN: (grabs SAM by the front of his shirt) There's no other way that this could have gone down. Now tell the truth!

SAM: She’s gonna eat you alive. DEAN: I just got outta jail. Bring it. (DEAN in act four: What do you say we ring the dinner bell?)

Pamela flirts with Dean and gropes him and then has her eyes burned out by Cas.

Pamela is a psychic saying Cas touched Dean somewhere intimate-- PAMELA: And I need to touch something our mystery monster touched. Dean jumps. DEAN: Whoa. Well, he didn't touch me there. PAMELA: My mistake.

Dean sarcastically suggesting he was brought back to life because he’s hot or the creature has some sort of infatuation with him-- DEMON WAITRESS: So you get to just stroll out of the pit, huh? Tell me. What makes you so special? DEAN: I like to think it's because of my perky nipples. (Cas: Certain people, special people, can perceive my true visage. I thought you would be one of them.)

(Another rape reference from Dean DEAN: So go ahead. Send me back. But don't come crawling to me when they show up on your front doorstep with some Vaseline and a fire hose.)

[images: Dean sleeping]

Cas coming to talk to him again while he's laying in a vulnerable position. He’s alone again and asleep in a bed with mirrors on the ceiling. I believe the motel room is the honeymoon suite.

BOBBY: How you doin', kid? DEAN: Aside from the church bells ringing in my head, peachy.

This is clever foreshadowing, but also church bells bring to mind weddings.

Dean starting his relationship with Cas by lying to Sam about trying to summon him, in parallel to Sam lying about Ruby-- DEAN: Bobby, whatever this is, whatever it wants, it's after me. That much we know, right? I've got no place to hide. I can either get caught with my pants down again, or we can make our stand.

The reveal that the woman Sam was sleeping with is Ruby and reveal of Sam lying to Dean about not using his powers is directly before the Cas reveal, with the two brothers cast in contrast, one with a demon and one with an angel. Would only be more obvious if Dean summoned Cas alone, but even so, Cas puts Bobby to sleep so they can talk alone.

[image: Cas with sparks raining down on him]

Sparks flying when they first meet.

DEAN: Who are you? CASTIEL: I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition. DEAN: Yeah. Thanks for that.

Dean penetrates Cas with his knife.

CASTIEL: We need to talk, Dean. Alone.

CASTIEL: I'm an Angel of the Lord. DEAN: Get the hell out of here. There's no such thing. CASTIEL: This is your problem, Dean. You have no faith.

He knows him already. Dean’s relationship with faith has been previously established as related to his mother and her belief in angels and his losing her as a child, his greatest trauma.

(2x13 DEAN: I'll tell you who else had faith like that — Mom. She used to tell me when she tucked me in that angels were watching over us. In fact, that was the last thing she ever said to me.

DEAN: What's to tell? She was wrong. There was nothing protecting her. There's no higher power, there's no God. I mean, there's just chaos, and violence, and random unpredictable evil that comes out of nowhere, and rips you to shreds. You want me to believe in this stuff? I'm going to need to see some hard proof. You got any?)

We also later learn how Dean idealizes angels in 4x10 (also written by Kripke)-- (DEAN: You guys are powerful and perfect. You don't doubt yourselves or God or anything.)

CASTIEL: I warned her not to spy on my true form. It can be... overwhelming to humans, and so can my real voice. But you already knew that. DEAN: You mean the gas station and the motel? That was you talking? Buddy, next time, lower the volume.

Again drawing another parallel between him and Ruby, thinking Dean is “special” and has important abilities.

CASTIEL: That was my mistake. Certain people, special people, can perceive my true visage. I thought you would be one of them. I was wrong.

Calling attention to his appearance, commenting on his clothes, drawing another parallel between him and Ruby in that they’re both possessing someone, while attempting to lessen the moral issue of it--

DEAN: And what "visage" are you in now, huh? What, holy tax accountant? CASTIEL: This? This is... a vessel. DEAN: You're possessing some poor bastard? CASTIEL: He's a devout man, he actually prayed for this.

[deleted lines: DEAN: Uh-huh. Y'know, it might've been easier to show up like this the first time instead of all the burning bush crap. CASTIEL: Finding a human vessel durable enough to contain me... it's not easy. DEAN: I have that same problem with women.]

DEAN: Well, I'm not buying what you're selling, so who are you really? CASTIEL: I told you. DEAN: Right. And why would an angel rescue me from Hell? CASTIEL: Good things do happen, Dean. DEAN: Not in my experience. CASTIEL: What's the matter? You don't think you deserve to be saved?

Cas seeing right through him, seeing dean for who he is, knowing him immediately.

4x10 (also written by Kripke)-- (ANNA: Maybe I don't deserve to be saved. DEAN: Don't talk like that. ANNA: I disobeyed. Lucifer disobeyed. It's our murder one, and I knew it. Maybe I got to pay. DEAN: Yeah, well, we've all done things we got to pay for. ANNA: I got to tell you something. You're not gonna like it. DEAN: Okay. what? ANNA: About a week ago, I heard the angels talking... About you... What you did in Hell. Dean, I know. It wasn't your fault. You should forgive yourself.)

"I don't deserve to be saved," Dean arguing that maybe he doesn't either and Anna saying he does deserve forgiveness, this echoes "you don't think you deserve to be saved" (and later "I'm not here to judge you, Dean" in 4x07)

The parallel between Cas saying they have work for Dean, and Ruby and Sam working together–

(SAM: I don't know if what I'm doing is right. Hell, I don't even know if I trust you. But what I do know is that I'm saving people. And stopping demons. And that feels good. I want to keep going.)

DEAN: Why'd you do it? CASTIEL: Because God commanded it. Because we have work for you.

Kripke on who Dean would be attracted to– "In hindsight, Dean wouldn't be attracted to [Jo]... He'd be attracted to someone who walked in the door, slaughtered everybody and walked out and then he would say, 'Who's that?'" - Kripke; Supernatural Companion Season 2, pg 15 (published April 2008)

Misha imagined Cas looking into Dean's soul (asylum 8 2012)

Misha: Kripke wanted to base the look of the character on the comic book character ‘Constantine’ I don’t know if I’m ever going to change clothes.” (Hollywood Insider, 2008)

Wikipedia: Constantine is bisexual, which was first established in a 1992 comic that referred offhandedly to his having male and female exes. Early stories exclusively showed him dating women, although Ashes & Dust in the City of Angels showed him as having relationships with men, as well.

Kripke using a similar scene for Hughie and Annie in The Boys with sparks raining down from lights and it being intended to be epic and romantic. (The Boys 1x08)

#spn 4x01 #destiel #spn thoughts #meta #s4dc #gay subtext #long post #sometimes you just gotta actually post things from a google doc you started five years ago yknow #there's more but this is about half of it I think #i'll post the rest at some point

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