(Probably, have to admit, thanks to the longer-than-LOTR endverse fic that is currently ruining my life?)
Apocalypse rehash or no, I suddenly feel like we’ve been led through–in painful, excruciating, let down by everyone including himself, two fucking year long detail–the hollowing out and formation of endverse Dean.
We’re there now. Agonizing but beautiful to me headcanon: what if the flaws of all the relevant characters (dean’s obsessions, sam’s arrogance, cas’s instinctive distance…) would in many timelines have catapulted Dean to that darkness? You can change the details, but it always leads here…maybe not to a militia camp on the forefront of an apocalyptic battle, but…to a lost, shut off, violent man…
I’ve been saying since last season that we’ve been in Endverse for a long time now.
My favorite kind of anti blog post is when they’re like, “If you really wanted representation, you’d pick Sam to be the bi one.” Mainly because I’m like, “No, no, you don’t understand. This isn’t an either-or situation. I want to interpret all of them as queer without people telling me it’s ~enough~.”
Queer Sam? Heck yeah. Queer Charlie. Queer Dean. Queer Jody. Queer Donna. Queer Crowley. Queer Rowena. Queer Hannah. Queer Mary. Queer Bobby. Queer Ellen. (Holy shit. Queer Ellen. Jesus.) Queer Kevin. Queer Benny. Queer recurring characters. Queer characters that only show up in one episode. ~Flaunt~ the possibility of queerness in everyone’s face, until heteronormativity ain’t a thing anymore. (The thing that’s truly maddening is most of these characters have never said a damn word about their sexuality, but they’re all assumed to be straight.)
*Oprah voice* And you get a queer headcanon! And you get a queer headcanon! Everybody gets a queer headcanoooooon!
ABSOLUTELY. All the characters are potentially queer, basically. The only difference is that a heavy weight of subtext within the show happens to be on Dean, so he is our best bet for a character to be made CANONICALLY queer, & provide real representation, so it makes sense to focus efforts there. This is no way takes away from the ability of others to see more characters as queer.
That argument is NerdBoy Gatekeepers all over the place, trying to show how much superior to the Fake Geek Girls they are.
So much this! Queer anyone! Queer everyone! (Hey, straight people have no compunctions against claiming anyone and everyone as straight, so turn-about is fair play!) There’s literally no compelling reason to assume that any given character is straight, once you remove the presumption that straight is the default.
Claiming they’d support a different character being queer often reeks of “you can only have characters I don’t care so much about,” or worse, “I only support queer representation as an abstract concept – not as an actual reality.”
The idea that if we “really cared about representation” we’d have no preference at all as to which characters were queer rests on several grossly heteronormative presumptions:
That it’s either/or (as this post already addresses)
That straight people have automatic ownership of all characters, and thus it’s entirely their call whether or not to toss us the occasional crumb (i.e. they inherently deserve everything, we inherently deserve nothing, so we’d better be damn grateful cause it’s pure generosity to give us anything at all)
That it’s simply unthinkable that there might be any subtext specifically around Dean – straight fans who don’t see it are automatically right, queer fans who do are automatically delusional (which is homophobic as fuck)
That sexuality (though really just queer sexuality) is an arbitrary label, an inconsequential afterthought, not an integral part of who a person is. That it’s so superficial and irrelevant that it makes absolutely no difference which character it’s slapped onto. (Curiously, this is the exact opposite of the constant claim that a particular character can’t be queer, cause they don’t fit some narrow stereotype.)
We don’t want Dean to be “made” queer – we want acknowledgment that he’s already queer (insofar as a fictional character “has” any implicit traits – but that’s a tangential matter of literary theory and the relationship between subtext and main text). Could other characters also be queer? Well duh! But what the hell does that have to do with Dean being queer? Two different peoples’ orientations are two completely distinct entities. Would they argue that my cousin can’t be queer, because I am? Queerness is not a finite resource! There’s more than enough queerness to go around!
Oh boy. There is so much to be said about these scenes, so I’ll try not to ramble too much. First and foremost, I’d like to proclaim my love for Robbie Thompson for giving us these mirrors, because they are an absolute treasure, amen. (Also, props to Jensen for his acting choices in that first sequence.)
There’s no question that the above were A) mirrored for a reason and B) subtextual storytelling. There are several ways to interpret these scenes, but I think they boil down to foreshadowing, no matter which way you slice ‘em.
In the first scene between Dean and Cas, there are a few possible interpretations that I can see. The first, more obvious choice (and the one that I immediately thought of upon watching the scene) is that the dialogue is about Dean and his own situation. This makes a lot of sense, because Claire has been a Dean mirror for most of the season.
In the last episode, we saw that Dean’s subconscious finally seemed to understand that having it would ruin Cas and Sam to have to watch him succumb to the mark again, eventually forcing one or both of them to take him out. It’s possible that Dean is using this as justification to strike out on his own again, like what he did after waking up a demon in 9×23/10×01 (PS, I’ve been getting this vibe ever since Jensen tweeted this:
Which immediately left us all thinking of this:)
He doesn’t want them to see him complete this downward spiral into damnation. He figures, hey, he was doing relatively well on his own in his time as a demon, particularly after he gave Crowley the slip (see “partly because she doesn’t have anybody to answer to” in gif 4 above.) I think Dean was kind of testing the waters when he struck out to take on the vamp nest at the beginning of Werther Project. He may be trying to see if he can handle things solo, because he thinks he “may be stronger on [his] own.”
I don’t think that Dean actually believes this, though. He told us explicitly at the end of the last episode that he thought the universe was trying to tell them something, saying that he and Sam were stronger when they worked together. It seemed like such successful character development that I literally cheered when it happened. However, we see him now having some doubts. Possibly. Unless we look at it this way:
As we see quite often in fanfic, Dean could be employing the Break His Heart to Save Him or Please Dump Me tropes to try to get Cas to let him go. As I discussed above, Dean can feel himself slipping away and doesn’t want it to ruin everybody and everything, so this dialogue might be about him trying to make a clean break with Cas in case he does have to leave, or wanting to make Cas believe that he thinks he (Dean) is better off without him (Cas). We know that this would not only be a particularly brutal tactic for Dean to employ with Cas; it would also be an extremely effective one.
Castiel doesn’t feel like he belongs anywhere right now (see his conversation with Metatron in Book of the Damned.) He’s unsure of his place. We know, canonically, that the most important things to him- his missions, if you will- are fixing his wrongs in heaven and on Earth (done and done) and Dean. So, if Dean were to convince him, whether by suggestion or blatant dismissal, that he would be better off without Cas, Castiel would be devastated, but might not fight him on it as he has in the past when Dean has used the you’re better off without me argument. However…
This last interpretation breaks my heart a bit, but I still think it’s a distinct possibility. I almost didn’t see it at first, but the line “there’s nobody holding her back” really struck me as out-of-place. Until I examined it this way. And now I can’t un-see it. It’s entirely possible that the dialogue is about Cas. Consider this:
“…in fact, you’re not anything to her except a constant reminder of someone that’s gone.”
In fact, I’m not anything to you except a constant reminder of the angel that you used to be. The warrior of God. The leader of armies, the fighter of heavenly battles.This 100% has I’m-not-worthy self-deprecating Dean Winchester written all over it.
“No, I’m… responsible for everything that’s happened to her.”
No, you’ve made me everything that I am today. I owe you everything.
“Look,
I’m just sayin’, she’s been surviving on her own for quite a while now,
and it’s partly because she doesn’t have anybody to answer to. You
know, there’s… there’s nobody holding her back.”
Look, I’m just sayin’, you’ve been doing well on your own for quite a while now, and it’s partly because you finally got your head on straight and stopped listening to those tools upstairs. But it’s also partly because you’ve been keeping away from me. I’m poison, you know. I won’t be the one to hold you back.
“We just found her in a hospital. Are you telling me that she’d be better off on her own?”
I was at my lowest point without you. Are you telling me you think I’d be better off on my own again?
“I’m sayin’ she might be stronger on her own.”
I’m sayin’, maybe you’ll be sad without me, but you’ll be stronger.
I think the first possibility is more likely (and more supported by its mirroring scene between Sam and Cas) but still worth talking about.
If we continue with the assumption that the first interpretation is correct, Sam and Castiel’s conversation becomes super-supportive-bff/brother-in-law Sam Winchester.
“When this is over… should I… should I leave Claire alone?”
When this is over… when we cure the mark… should I leave Dean alone?
“What?
No, man. She’s family. Well, I mean… she’s not exactly family, but
she’s close enough. I mean, you two have history. Simple as that.”
“What? No, man. You’re family. Well, I mean, we’re not exactly family, but close enough. You and Dean have history. Simple as that.
“So you don’t think she’s better off on her own?”
So you don’t think Dean would be better off without me?
“Here’s all I know: going it alone, that’s no way to live. You being there for her, even if she thinks she doesn’t want you to be there for her, that’s good. For both of you.”
Here’s all I know: Dean can’t go it alone. He might think he can, but he can’t. He might try to convince you otherwise, he might try to convince himself otherwise, and even if he thinks he doesn’t want you to be there for him for whatever god-awful emotionally-constipated reason, it would be good. For both of you.
“Maybe, in the end.”
Obviously, I don’t mean to imply that textual conversation the boys are having is them trying to sort out their fear of talking about real issues by means of hyperbole and metaphor. But the writers frequently use textual conversations such as these as parallels between the scene and the over-arching story by utilizing mirroring and subtextual dialogue. We’ve seen it over and over and over again this season, in most of the Monster of the Week episodes, in the Dark Charlie story, in Cole’s arc. Supernatural is infamous for silent storytelling, for subtextual dialogue, for foreshadowing. I think, no matter what way we interpret this scene, we can be sure that something bad is going to happen. Dean is going to try to leave or force the others to leave him before he can destroy their lives.
I’m really interested in everyone else’s interpretation. I think we’re in for a lot of heartbreak in the coming episodes. What do you think?
I’ve talked about the incongruity between what Dean says and the subtext of this scene before, but let’s rehash: Dean Winchester lives a dangerous life, this is not the first time he’s had a gun pointed at him. He knows full well that it is a rifle, and very obviously he does not wish to have a rifle pointed at his back.
So what he’s actually saying is that dear god, for once in his miserable life, why can’t it be a dick pressed up against his back. He’d love if his life was the kind of life where it would be a dick and not a gun. Especially the dick of the guy he seems to have decided was pretty hot just a moment ago.
Okay, then lets talk about the next scene between them in which they are totally flirting…
Ash fucking winks at Dean, and Dean does that devour thing.
He also does the cheek thing very briefly.
Also, this is immediately following their father’s death and while Sam’s mourning seems to have brought him closer to his estranged father, Dean’s mourning seems to come out as (belated) rebellion against his upbringing. I think the compliment on the hair-cut was entirely genuine: Dean admires rock musicians, but he’s had to sport the buzz-cut all his life because his father raised him to be a good little soldier. But a Skynyrd roadie? That shit is hot to him. Attraction to someone like Ash is the last thing he thinks John Winchester would have allowed him, so that’s exactly what he goes for in his rebellious mourning.
I could not spot the shielding thing, but there was some interesting things going on when Ash came back on screen. For one thing Ash ditched his undershirt, and came strutting topless in when the boys were back at the Roadhouse.
Then he had a weird stand off with Dean…About touching his laptop.
Wow, I totally see why there was a Dean x Ash ship going on back then. What´s up Dean indeed… Those two have something going on. I´ll post the kiss by proxy tomorrow.
Dean has his hand on his lap under the bar table right after we’re shown Ash reading John Winchester’s notes, and he keeps it there until Ash leaves the room, so he had his arm between Ash’s eyes and his junk in a pretty obvious fashion.
And yeah, Ash coming out with his chest bared and thrusting his pelvis forward? That is ridiculously sexy, and entirely for Dean’s benefit, cause he’s like “been waiting for you, man”.
And oh Jesus, Dean’s fingers hovering on top of his keyboard. Both the transcript and the closed caption give his line as “What’s up, man?” but it’s not that exactly. Could “Yea, what’s up, man?“ or “Tell me what’s up, man?“ However, the way Ash is positioned, they are making the connection between his junk and his ‘junk’, like if Dean were to touch his computer for Ash it would be the same as fondling his goods, and he’s giving Dean a look that says “At least buy me a drink first”.
And then he drinks from Dean’s bottle.
Yes! Let´s talk a little bit about that. Because Ash sure is thirsty. But first Dean wants Ash to call him as soon as possible.
Look at that sneaky bastard.
Just so pleased with himself.
Oh well, would you look at that, he is drinking beer with a cupids bow and arrow. Fuck me sideways…
Kissing each other by proxy.
Uhh… what do you know about the movie `Pink Flamingos`?
Wow, I had totally missed the detail about the bottle! I was always convinced the subtext was intentional because there was no way the contrast between his scenes with Ash and Jo could be accidental, but the fact that Wanek along with Shiban and Edlund, in two separate episodes, conspired to make this happen suggests that it was planned exactly this way.
I think we have a shot of him looking at a woman with the exact same face he makes in gif 2, but I can’t remember the episode.
I’ve never seen Pink Flamingoes, but well spotted!
I have not seen the movie as well, but apparently the line ‘I´m on it like Divine on dog dookie’ is from this movie.
Sam obviously doesn´t get it, but t Ash seems to know who does in the company. He glances over to Dean, he mainly said it to Dean…
I am guessing this genius said it to gauge if Dean is… interested.
Pink Flamingos is classic niche queer cinema from John Waters (1972) who is probably best known to mainstream audiences as the creator of Hairspray. It is best described as having a “trash, kitsch queer aesthetic”. It is a deliberately in-your-face shocking romp through absurdity and “bad taste” – a big in-your-face f-you to conventional life and morals. Drag queen Divine eats dog poo in it, which is what the line above refers to. I would say, it’s worth seeing if you’re interested in the history of queer cinema, but it is dated and doesn’t “work” in the same way today as it did back in the 1970s. Mentioning it, as Ash does here, and having someone know what you are talking about – in the kind of blue collar macho hunter culture of the Roadhouse – is sure-fire code for “Are you familiar with queer culture and hence with a lil’ queerness, darlin’?“
Can someone who speaks Latin please translate the remainder of the Werther’s inscription? Rowena even sort of lampshaded the fact that we didn’t hear the whole thing when she said, “That’s it?” From trying to piece it together myself based on various online dictionaries, it looks like it has the words for washing and water in it, which of course is very interesting insofar as it recalls the whole “river begins at the source” line.
Here’s the whole inscription, if someone could please take a crack at it! I’d be forever grateful.
arca turbata clavem inveniet ut obruat te ipsum arcam confutare sitit restinguere sanguine nostrum [line break] libido moriendi estu lavi aquae incubat in omnium mente sive dolorosa sive invidiosa sive pavida
Ok, so this is what I got (and this is rough, as I don’t have my latin textbook with me and I’m not awesome at tenses/cases anymore).
What Rowena skips over:
Arca turbata clavem inveniet ut obruat te ipsum The key of this wretched
box will overwhelm you itself
She reads aloud and Sam translates:
arcam confutare sitit restinguere sanguine nostrum To silence the box,
slake its thirst with the blood of our own
The second line (and here, I think it actually says moriendi est [u la] via quae which unfortunately omits all water/washing references, but does make sense for the events of the episode):
libido moriendi est u la via quae incubat in omnium mente sive dolorosa sive invidiosa sive pavida It lusts for death hatched
in all minds as pain or sorrow or hostility or terror
So what this translation
basically says is that opening the box will be pointless, because the process
of opening it will consume you, and then it also that it will bring death to
everyone else, too.
I think its interesting, if we accept that Rowena was just a projection of Sam’s mind, that Sam skipped over reading the parts that had the huge fucking warnings in them. He didn’t care about the personal cost, which is par for the course for the winchesters, but its notable that he also disregarded the warnings that would affect other people. The Suzie-projection called herself the first casualty in this particular crusade (I’m paraphrasing, sorry) and made Sam look at her body, so clearly a part of Sam feels really guilty about his actions – but none of that matters in the face of his need to save Dean. It’s basically Sam’s mind both saying “Damn the consequences,” and literally shouting at him to pay attention to them.
Also, looks like the conversation’s happening over here as well!
I have now giffed this moment for microanalysis because I saw him pat Cas’s shoulder but I had missed the thing with his eyes and I had to see it for myself and just:
HE ACTUALLY DOES COMPLETELY AVOID EYE CONTACT AND GO STRAIGHT FOR THE SHOULDER.
And then he’s like BEER AND SNACKS ARE SO INTERESTING I KNOW YOU JUST GOT YOUR GRACE BACK BUT I HAVE TO UNPACK THESE RIGHT NOW, RIGHT THIS SECOND
And this last one just kills me because Cas is clearly SO UPSET about having to lie to Dean again and you can see Sam do this little micro-frown thing and he can totally tell Cas isn’t happy about the lying. And then there’s Charlie who appears to be LITERALLY WITNESSING AN OTP MOMENT. Like fucking look at her and that glowing smile. She’s not looking at Cas at all, she’s looking at Dean and I feel it in my soul that her internal monologue has got to be something along the lines of “MY SWEET LITTLE BISEXUAL PRODIGY! OH THE PLACES YOU’LL GO! (like Cas’s ass)”
I mean honestly, if she were paying even an iota of attention to Cas in this moment, she would have seen him in full on I-AM-LYING-TO-DEAN guilt mode. But no, she just watches Dean be reunited with his “dreamy” angel and UGH I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH TWO FUCKING IDIOTS!
“Take my advice and live for a long, long time. Because the maddest thing a man can do in this life is to let himself die.”
Does Quixote himself say it? Is Cas being compared to Don Quixote? His attempts to execute Heaven’s missions (like tracking down rogue angels) comparable to Quixote’s delusional tilting at windmills??
Wow there’s some serious meta in that I wish i had more time to think about it!
if i’m not mistaken, don quixote does everything he does in order to impress the woman he loves, whom he sees as a noblewoman but is in fact a peasant, someone who’s worth nothing. dean is referred to as a ‘back-road nothing’ by jacob styne. i’m not saying what i’m saying, but yeah i’m saying it. don quixote acts all noble but in fact he acts to impress the person he’s in love with. compare it to a certain metatron quote about cas doing everything just for one man…
thank you for not saying what you’re saying but still saying it!
well said
heh
(best not to compare Quixote’s love for his
Dulcinea too closely to Cas and dean tho – the point with Quixote was that the woman was a stranger to him and he basically picked her to call his true love at random because according to him a true knight needed a woman to love from afar, part of what is called the “courtly love tradition,” so what he loved wasn’t the woman herself but a FICTION of a woman he projected onto her… I would say Dean’s feelings for Lisa fit Quixote’s for Dulcinea a bit closer…)
Also, IIRC, Don Quixote and Dulcinea/Aldonza never even speak to each other in the book. Sancho knows her but that’s it. I remember the first time I read it being exasperated that nothing at all ever happens. And it’s a super long book for nothing to happen in, too!
The musical is different and they do speak and she even reciprocates his love by the end (though it’s too late).
But there’s a door between them with a green exit sign.
Someone talk dirty to me about that Liam poster, since I haven’t been able to find it despite my best attempts. Liam Genockey?
It´s not an exit sign. It is the mens restroom.
The two fests already advertized in Supernatural by the way. Not sure if there is a connection.
The only Liam and bisexual connection could be Liam Payne from One Direction. Not being a fan myself I did not know this, but it is the only thing that comes up in a fast google search. For like two pages…
Heh, I dug up the bisexual connection. Liam “By By” Pease-Smith. We won’t let Wanek win this game.
End Folk and musician that committed suicide, huh. Don’t know which of them to fear for.
Let’s also look at the color differences:
1: Dean wears blue, there’s a “cool” color to the bar. Crowley’s straw is blue.
2: Dean wears red, most of the bar is “warm” and reddish tones. Crowley’s straw is red.
Also noted:
Drinks:
1: second glass of drink next to Dean, full. The garnish on Crowley’s drink is on a twisted skewer separate from the little pitchfork. Dean’s drinking from a shot glass
2: second glass next to Dean is unused, clean, and upside down on the bartender’s mat-thing. Crowleys garnish is on the pitchfork this time, blackberry instead of… kumquat? Dean’s drinking from a tumbler.
I also believe they’re sitting at a corner, so Dean isn’t directly next to Crowley but more at an angle.
I’ve also been wondering about the drink Crowley is drinking. Is it the Pitchfork cocktail? Stars and Stripes Sipper? Heaven and Hell?
Hold up, back to the thing about the coloured straws. So both times there’s an association between Dean and the thing Crowley’s sucking on?
Ok no but what I said last week still holds – something that might be interpreted as bi!Dean happens on the show and suddenly all the haters clog the wank tag with how much it’s deluuuusional to think Dean might be bi.
It really bothers you a lot, doesn’t it, that people might be interpreting him as anything but perfectly straight? That the show started to be pretty frequent about the bi allusions?
Maybe you should start thinking about why you feel the need to defend Dean’s heterosexuality instead of blabbing on about how people “only do it to validate their ship.”
And . if Dean’s heterosexuality was as crystal clear as you apparently want it to be, it wouldn’t need any defending, surely?
How do you define ‘crystal clear’? Because this is how I define it:
The people that Dean has kissed and/or had sex with, all females:
So, the question is, why do YOU see his ‘bi-ness’ in pastry and his newfound appreciation for Taylor Swift, when his heterosexuality is staring you right in the face?
It bothers us because it’s fucking offensive to say someone is bi based on their choice of music, food, and the colors of the shirt they are wearing. That is encouraging nasty stereotypes.I KNOW why I need to defend it because idiots like you are being the homophobic parents who won’t accept their child is gay.
You…realize I’m queer right? And that I know all about nasty stereotypes and parents who don’t accept their child for their queerness…Not that it matters. At no point did I ever say any of these things you seem to think I said. Nowhere. Don’t you read the posts you shit on? Jesus.
“Dean said he was straight and queer people are never in denial about their sexuality and here’s a bunch of gifs of Dean making out with women because bisexual ppl don’t do that and how dare you take evidence of Dean rejecting the harshly ultra-macho heteronormative hunter culture he grew up in by embracing traits that were repressed (ie, taking pride in his appearance & clothing, enjoying "feminine”-coded music, etc.) as support of the reading that he’s a repressed bisexual who is slowly coming to terms with his internalized queerphobia and effemiphobia"
lmao ok
Just this part:
It bothers us because it’s fucking offensive to say someone is bi based on their choice of music, food, and the colors of the shirt they are
wearing. That is encouraging nasty stereotypes.I KNOW why I need to
defend it because idiots like you are being the homophobic parents who
won’t accept their child is gay.
You realise Dean’s a fictional construct, right? You realise fiction does not follow the same laws as the real world, and symbolism, parallels and subtext are all real, valid things that have significance in telling a story. Showing that Dean’s taste in music isn’t as rigidly defined as it once was has significance in portraying his character development, and it’s meant to have implications for other aspects of his character. The costume department and prop department choose things because of their significance and don’t just throw outfits together based on how you’re feeling that day, like people do in the real world. Symbolism is a thing. Motifs, parallels, symbols…they’re put there to represent aspects of the story that aren’t being told at a face-value level. These aren’t nasty stereotypes. They’re storytelling techniques.
Also, look at the cases where Dean says he’s straight or that he “doesn’t swing that way”. He’s on the defensive in all of them. He feels threatened or insecure and his way of taking back control of the situation is by reaffirming his masculinity, which he thinks is achieved by saying he’s straight. The macho image he’s trying to project by denying that he “swings that way” is more of a stereotype than anything else. Put him in a situation where he doesn’t feel threatened, thinks he’s in control, and then pull the rug out from under him by directly confronting the issue of his sexuality, and you get some awkward flustering and stumbling over words a la the Aaron scene. You don’t get untroubled affirmation from him that he’s straight.
Also, the comment above me? That x 100
Dean is not bisexual in canon. He’s not and I don’t like people insisting that he is because there’s a whole bunch of problems with that. But this hostility towards people who are doing nothing more than personally choosing to interpret him that way? Why do you feel so threatened by it? If he was bi, so the fuck what? It doesn’t degrade his character at all.
I have no doubt that Dean was originally intended to be written as straight, and anything people saw as hinting towards his bisexuality in
earlier seasons was just (un?)happy accident. Now, though, the writing
and production team clearly have a different view on the show. There’s
plenty of stuff they’ve retconned the original intended meaning of
(reapers, angels, heaven, hell…all sorts, really); they seem to
interpret the characters differently than the old writers did, and they’re more aware of the
fandom than ever. They know the bi!dean interpretation exists. They know
they’re fuelling it. Adam Glass’ twitter has made it quite plain he’s aware of people interpreting Dean as bi, and it’s evident in his writing (and some of the other writers’) that he’s pandering to it. That has problems in itself if he’s not taking it seriously and just wants to cash in on a queer audience, but the people who have that interpretation don’t deserve to be attacked.
Dean, being fictional as he is, cannot define his sexuality for himself. In fanon, people can interpret it how they like. In canon, even if he’s said he’s straight in past seasons, that’s only a statement of the show’s canon as it currently stands. It’s not a precedent for that to always be the case, and there have been cases where shows have revealed a character’s sexuality to be something other than previously presumed. The writers are the ones who get to define his canon sexuality, and their recent actions suggest to me their stance is “Fandom: you wanna interpret him as bi? Well, we’re not gonna confirm that outright, but we’ll give you plenty to work with.” Whether or not their actions are harmful in doing so, well…I think that’s a different debate, but it’s not the pro-bi!dean portion of the fandom who can be blamed for that.
This scene is such a great insight though. This is something that Dean has done dozens of times over the years, probably something he learned from John, Sam did too—how to look like a drunk, an easy mark, when in fact you are the hustler. Remember how Sam objected to hustling back in season one?
What’s interesting that what set Dean off in this scene was the college kid announcing playing for money—loud and entitled. The kid looked a lot like the snobbish Dash from “Ask Jeeves” who looked down on Sam and Dean for wearing flannel. This isn’t just about the money or the game. Dean wasn’t satisfied just taking the kids to the cleaners for their cash. He wanted the kid’s watch, the one his dad gave him, the status symbol. This hustle was a kind of class warfare for Dean.
When Dean mocked him out about the watch, it became a very different scene for me than just another hustle. I kind of felt like that moment again harkened to a simpler time for Sam and Dean, season 1 and season 2 where Dean was doing what he had to do to feed himself and Sam having to learn to be that guy again. At the same time highlighting that Sam and Dean might live in the bunker, but they are still just blue collar guys.
I liked the bar scenes quite a bit, there was something poetic to Dean having everyone come to him. The hustle, Rowena and then Crowley. It was a total contrast to Sam’s journey of a many locations and having to track people down.
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