sorry to bother you, but maybe you can explain, why are people saying Dean didn’t notice something was off about Cas? he clearly said “something seems off about Cas” in the episode, didn’t people hear that? also, I think Lucifer did a REALLY good job of being Cas, with the soulful staring. the emotional conversation and everything so I think it’s pretty impressive that Dean noticed something was off at all. also didn’t we already know from the promo they don’t notice until episode 14?
Yeah… To be honest, the “wrong shoulder, dude” analysis from before the episode was a speculation that held up in the scene, to my eyes? And as you say Dean DID know something was off by the end so I don’t need to convince you 😛 I also thought it was pretty obvious that Dean ended up suspicious.
Dean could not have been OVERLY suspicious of Casifer once they started interacting. I think tbh the way Dean mistook “Cas” for an intruder and came rushing down the hall gun in hand is a good sort of indicator that he had a correct gut feeling that something was weird, and he challenges “Cas” as soon as he finds him – “we don’t hear from you for days, you show up and start wrecking the joint?”
Casifer IS acting out of character for Cas, even when it comes to handling their property. Cas has spent some time now hanging out with them and touching their stuff, digging through their personal supplies without asking, even like in 8×08 where it was invasive snooping into Dean’s bag just out of curiosity about his toiletries. But he’s respectful about it and he’s not like a pet that still needs housebreaking that will just leave a mess and throw their stuff everywhere. Meanwhile Lucifer has knocked over two filing cabinets for some reason which can not be about making it easier to find things. The room is subtly messed up with drawers open everywhere and papers and index cards spilled, which I think is probably symbolic in of itself about the scene and how Dean gets unintentionally emotionally gutted by Lucifer – which he can only realise later.
I think the important thing is that Dean is really really willing to accept an apology and an explanation because he doesn’t WANT it not to be Cas, so he gives Casifer the benefit of the doubt at the start of the conversation instead of challenging him right away, which I think is what some people would have wanted – not for Dean to even go into the conversation at all.
(Casifer seems to be taller than Dean, rewatching this :P)
Dean also takes a long time to meet Casifer’s eye as well: the subject is Amara basically the whole time they’re in the room together. and Dean is having a hard time talking about that, and so he’s clearly consumed with some self-centred thoughts about that as well, working up the nerve to talk to Cas about it – he’s been harping on it since the very first episode – his weird stare at the end of 11×01 and drinking at the end of 11×06 are both moments he really self reflected on what was going on about him and Amara and didn’t share, so this is half a season of build up for Dean to finally trust someone enough to talk, so he is clearly in turmoil if we take into account how hard this is for him to speak.
This gifset: http://ksenianovak.tumblr.com/post/138198364555 simplifies the reactions but gets the message across in Dean’s body language in a way I feel is honest to the scene, for people who can’t rewatch.
Through the “Attraction!?” bit of the conversation the emphasis on reactions is on Casifer since Misha is being scene stealing, but Dean continues to not make much eye contact, distracting himself to look for the knife he came for:
This is right after Dean confesses to the “attraction”. Casifer moves closer and Dean instinctively looks away, after two shots of him sneaking a glance at Cas in short succession to check his reaction isn’t too whatever Dean doesn’t want to see, so for HIS side of things, he is not paying attention to Cas, at least not for more than proximity and what he expects to hear, because he’s not devouring Cas’s reaction with his eyes, seeking out the full response. Dean expects comfort and understanding, but he also finds it hard to look at Cas. His grumbly “I know” about Cas’s “Dean,” sounds to me like he read it as concern and he’s saying “I know” as in “I have been angsting about this all season, trust me, I understand how bad it is.” He glances at Casifer a couple more ties, but he continues talking away down to the left as he admits about not being sure he can stop or resist it.
So he’s STILL not focussing on Cas’s reaction to all this – not more than understanding that Cas is currently hearing him out, and Dean’s got his expectations about what a heartfelt conversation with Cas entails to keep him going even if Lucifer’s reactions and mannerisms are not 100% Cas – Dean hasn’t even been looking at him to catch all the weird quirks of how he’s not moving like Cas any more.
And then FINALLY Cas puts that hand on Dean’s shoulder and Dean finally looks up and makes proper eye contact with him as Casifer says “It scares me too.”
It’s his reactions after that which are really interesting:
His eyes flick up on “scares me too”
but if we consider that 11×10 gave us Cas pawing all over Dean in another “similar” moment of concern and Dean was totally fine with physical interaction there, the non-Cas way of holding Dean’s shoulder with the very deliberate touch as if “This is me putting a hand on your shoulder because that is a thing that comforts humans” is distinguishable from “Hi I’m Cas I would literally help you pick your nose if you asked because I have no sense of personal boundaries but I do care about you” – it’s not so clear that Dean suspects Casifer of being “off” just from this, but he seems wary in a way that’s connected to the way Casifer touches him and we know he does NOT mind physical interaction with Cas. So.
Anyway, his face is fascinating after that:
(I made these gifs slower than normal to peer at his face better :P) You can see his eyes narrow on “we will find out what this is, I promise” which means now he’s actually looking at Cas, he’s beginning to not quite trust the way he’s acting, probably because the shoulder grip startled him, but maybe because Cas isn’t quiiite talking like Cas in this amazing show of Misha acting Lucifer acting Cas.
And then finally, the infamous “this could be a good thing” line, which we got in isolation in the promos but is actually a run on from talking about drawing Amara out, an abjectly bad idea when Dean has been talking about how scared he is of her, and Lucifer of course is only saying Amara scares him too to worm his way in emotionally:
Dean looks away, and then his eyes flick back up to Casifer, and after that he looks away because his phone rings, but only AFTER he looks suspiciously at Cas. I feel like he might have questioned Casifer’s “this could be a good thing” and what he seems to be saying about drawing Amara out, but he is interrupted, so all we have to go on is a fraction of a look of suspicion and a flicker of narrowed eyes.
And then Casifer tells Dean he’ll be there when they face Amara next time and Dean’s like “thanks Cas” (the dialogue in this gif) and walks off without another word between them.
He’s still not meeting Cas’s eye and he looks quite concerned – if he already felt weird about Cas’s suggestion earlier about drawing Amara out using their connection, Casifer’s promise here is not particularly reassuring to him. I almost see the “thanks” as a sort of placating thing but is really a “… but no thanks” to that idea. Whatever it is, he does seem uncomfortable with Casifer here where he wasn’t until the wrong shoulder thing earlier. Maybe couldn’t meet his eye then, but it was for his own issues… And now it’s for Lucifer related issues 😛
Anyway, like you say, they may not know about Casifer until 11×14 or so, but it’s reasonable for Dean to be suspicious and he did say he thought Cas was off. I don’t think even if he fully suspected after the junk room conversation that in the library conversation he would have said anything. And we know he’s spent half a season repressing about Amara so even if he did have a suspicion it WAS Lucifer and he HAD put it together as the only thing that could be “off” with Cas, then he’s not saying what he’s thinking as if to not make it real yet. So Dean not immediately figuring it so far as we can tell may just be Dean repressing this fear, just the same as he refused to talk for several episodes earlier in the season about Sam plausibly going to the cage in the first place.
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