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drsilverfish · 7 years

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Time and POV in Stuck in the Middle With You 12x12...

“So... tell me a story...” says Mr. Ketch, sitting across from Mary, just after the burning MOL symbol of the season announces...

The narrative is thus framed as told in flashback by Mary to Mr. Ketch.

The first POV we get is therefore Mary’s...

Time card... accompanied by the ticking of a stop watch (which we hear at intervals throughout the episode).

Mary witnesses Dean performing “super-hetero Dean” for Wally, or attempting to, in a diner - doesn’t go so well, with the, “My shy but devastatingly handsome friend,” huh Dean? Although, of course we can all agree Cas IS devastatingly handsome...

Mary is not impressed... (not with her sons bickering either - oh Mary - you ain’t seen nothing yet...)

under the cut as this got super long...

They are planning a hunting mission - Mary is taking the lead - she’s their new commander... they’re going after a demon that likes to fish. Cas is not impressed. He will be even less impressed later.

“Everything is going to be fine...” Mary promises them, after Wally has said he’s so nervous he can hardly eat. Then flash forward (still in Mary’s narrative) to everything not being fine - to mayhem and murder...

Cas is severely injured and

Wally is killed as, ironically “Walk With a Winner” plays (following a Tarantino-esque use of music throughout, where incongruity of song comments ironically on the action).

Then we get another title card...

The we get this card...

Now we’re in Cas’ POV as he sits in his car listening to gospel radio preaching “There is not one of us alive on this earth that will not pay the consequences of our actions...”

This is a flash back in time again from the mayhem segment we have seen from Mary’s POV and indeed a flash backwards prior to any time we have seen to date, as this is before the crew enter the diner...

Cas reaches for the radio dial and we get this card...

We get the Tarantino-esque walk into the diner...

This time, the same diner scene repeats, but from Cas’ POV and what’s really funny is that Cas just cuts all the squabbling and flirting banter out - Dean trying to hook him up with the waitress to cover his own crush etc. (calling him “devastatingly handsome”) - all cut. Sam asks, “”What’s the wifi password?”as he did before, the waitress answers “Extra cheese” as she did before, but from Cas’ POV they just move straight on to discussing strategy and tactics.

I love this little insight into Cas - that he just sometimes tunes parts of what his adopted human family is saying out - in order to focus on what he considers the important parts..

“What do I do?” Wally asks (again in some dialogue we did not hear in Mary’s first POV version of this diner scene.

“Don’t die.” snarks Dean. OH THANKS DEAN - we’ve already seen Wally die in Mary’s POV segment earlier. Ouch. The past (where we currently are) is commenting on the future, which is also hindsight for us!

This is probably how Cas experiences time, all the time....in a not strictly linear fashion - full-power angels can time travel, after all.

Mary says “Don’t worry, everything is going to be fine,” all over again (but we don;t hear the line from Wally about not being able to eat he’s so nervous which we got from Mary’s POV of this scene) and then again we flash forward, but from Cas’ POV, not Mary’s this time, to mayhem and murder...

Here is the establishing shot that tells us we are still in Cas’ POV

He’s a bit suspicious of Mary (she’s clearly nipped out to talk to the BMOL on her phone) but he accepts her nervous urination explanation.

Everyone is in place inside the dude’s house to take down night-fishing demon, and here he comes...

Demon killing bullets and demon killing knife are no good, He’s a match for Cas as well...

We see Wally killed all over again, as Sam once more shouts “No!”

But this time (Cas POV) we see how Cas gets the bloody wound we’ve already seen from Mary’s POV...

Now, we’re not absolutely strictly in Cas’ POV because when Mary rescues him and takes him to the barn down the road and calls Sam, we see a shot of Sam as he talks to her on the phone, so this is not veritas POV, but it is narrative POV...

“Are you OK?” Sam asks. “No,” Mary replies, with blood on her hands (literally and figuratively, as this is indeed all her fault thanks to her secret collaboration with the BMOL)

Then we get a time-counter card which reads (we hear ticking again too):

Sam and Dean arrive at the barn and Mary tells Sam that the demon had yellow eyes - they are both horrified (Dean has already gone to injured Cas’ side). “Mom, what the hell did you get us into?” Sam asks, This is their worst nightmare.

and then we lieave Cas’ POV (he looks as if he’s shifting in and out of consciousness anyway) and we are back in Mary’s POV as indicated by this title card:

We flash back to our earliest point in the time line, immediately signalled by a follow-up card

Mary and Wally have Ramiel’s place under surveillance and she’s explaining to him why she needs the request for help from her sons to come from him. so they don’t suspect the BMOL are involved (Mary - they tortured your son - how could you?!).

Poor Wally tries to raise some objections, but no dice... he’s in...

Worse - Mary is looking through the file on Ramiel given to her by the BMOL. Clearly they didn’t tell her everything, as she was shocked by the yellow eyes later. (as we’ve seen earlier!). BUT we do see an image of Michael with the spear in the file, which means she took Cas and her sons into a situation where there was a powerful angel and demon killing weapon held by the target without telling them... Dean is going to be FURIOUS when he finds out...

JUMP CUT! We are back in the diner (which follows in time sequence forward from Mary and Wally - they are heading to that diner to meet Mary’s sons and Cas right after their stake out).

We are back in the diner again this time, from Mary’s POV again. We hear snippets of repeated dialogue. Dean is heard saying, again, “Hey, Mandy, when do you get off?”

This is our third return to the diner!!! This time we do not hear Dean’s line about Cas being “devastatingly handsome” but we do see Mary looking like - Ugh my son - YOU are the one with extra cheese, all the way...

Wally is asking Sam and Dean what they think about “those fancy British Men of Letters”.

Dean says, “Yeah,” clearly rejecting the idea they should be involved, “they tried to kill my brother.,” RIGHT DEAN - why has your Mom FORGOTTEN THIS?!

Mary says her fatal line for a third time - “Everything’s going to be fine...”

At this point, we really, really know everything is NOT going to be fine...

Time card!

This is 40 mins earlier than the last time-card we got, when Cas was already stabbed and laid out in the barn during the confrontation with Ramiel from his POV...

We arrive at the earliest point we have yet seen in the confrontation with Ramiel (in Mary’s POV) when our team are scoping out his house and getting set to take him down before he comes back from fishing...

This is still, broadly, Mary’s POV. In keeping with that, we see her sneak out and go down into Ramiel’s basement where she sees the Michael spear painting which the BMOL have alerted her will be there. She moves it, opens the safe with a fancy BMOL safe-cracking device and removes a box which glows when she opens it...

We see the encounter between her and Cas which we saw earlier, from Cas’ POV again. Cas squints, “Mary, where were you?” Mary replies, “”I get nervous sometimes...” This is the “urination” conversation again, only now we know where Mary was - she was in the basement stealing something from Ramiel.

We see the sequence of Ramiel coming back, being immune to the demon-killing bullets and knife, thwacking the brothers and stabbing Cas with the spear in extreme flash forward sequence again (we saw all this before from Cas’ POV). Then we get another title card (more ticking)...

We are back in the barn with stabbed Castiel, two minutes before our previous visit to that point in time (which was from Cas’ POV) and Mary is texting the BMOL.

Mary why do you have them down as “Hobbits” in your phone? They are not kindly foodie gardeners with hairy feet?! They are more like pre-Nazgul...

Close-up on the red hands of guilt!

Sam and Dean arrive and Mary and Sam’s conversation about yellow eyes repeats. Dean and Cas talk, and Cas tells Dean he thinks he’s dying. We are now at the most forward place in the narrative we have reached (bearing in mind this is all in the past - being told to Mr. Ketch by Mary in a diner).

In the bam - Crowley arrives unexpectedly and announces - “You idiots, you’re all going to die!”

Shocked Winchester faces!.

The same Crowley lines repeat again (time is still looping - I wonder if we are getting a snippet of Cas’ POV here - that was an interesting mini-loop about dying).

“You idiots, you’re all going to die!”

Crowley explains who Ramiel is. Mary has a flashback to Azaezel and herself in a white nightdress on the night she died (we are still mainly in her POV).

Crowley explains that the Princes of Hell were not dead, as Cas and everyone supernatural had thought..

We get a new title card...

Crowley is paying a visit to Ramiel (same house, same interest in fishing)

We get another title card to tell us we are now entering Crowley’s POV:

Crowley is bringing the spear of Michael and the Colt to Ramiel as gifts.

Ramiel loves the spear and tells us that,“It kills the bad ones fast and the good ones slow and painful” (yes, we already know Cas is one of the GOOD ONES!). There’s a bit of an implication Lucifer is too there - given that Michael principally wanted to kill Lucifer with the thing and make him suffer...

“With Lilith and Azaezel dead and Lucifer back in his box...” so, this is post Swan Song in the Winchesters’ time-line,

“If you want the crown, it’s yours...” - what Crowley was hoping to hear from Ramiel all along, of course. He’d done his homework. Asmodeus has his hobbies, Dagon has her toys...

We jump into the “present” again, back in the barn (except the entire episode, reminder, is in the past, being told to Mr. Ketch by Mary, remember). Dean is kicking off at Crowley because Cas is dying

“We don’t have time for your... We don’t have time for you...You either help us or get the hell out of here!”

Crowley zaps out. We are now at the most forward point in the narrative we have yet reached...

Time card (and ticking)...

The Winchesters prepare for Ramiel’s arrival in the barn - using what they’ve got, which looks like holy oil and magical knuckle dusters.

As Crowley isn’t there, the scene is not technically from Crowley’s POV, but as we’ve said, the crew haven’t gone for veritas POV (the external eye of the camera is still ever-present).

But, here we are with Crowley outside the barn chatting to Ramiel. His POV.

Ramiel is not impressed. “Three humans with one good liver between them and a busted up angel...?”

Interesting - who has the good liver? Mary, or Sam? We know it’s not Dean, I’m afraid...

No deal. Crowley gets tossed into the barn by a powerful Prince of Hell. Here comes the Tarantino-esque whistling music and the arrival of Ramiel. himself - THE ANTAGONIST

Title card....

We loop back in time to a few minutes ago. Dean is saying, again, to Crowley,

“We don’t have time for your... for you...”

Crowley looks hurt/ resigned all over again...

Dean says “Yeah, figures...” again, and Crowley zaps out, again...

Why repeat this little sequence under the heading “A Real Barn Burner” - well, this is a real burn for Crowley. He knows that in the Crowley-Dean-Castiel love triangle, the only chance he had was when Dean was Demon!Dean, but still, it’s painful to be in unrequited love with Dean Winchester and to have it thrown in your face how little you matter to your ex compared to their angel soul-mate...

The “barn burner” is all about the subtext...

Time card...

Now we get more of what’s happening in the barn whilst Crowley is outside trying to bargain with Ramiel. So, this is not from Crowley’s POV -

Cas gives his “I love you... I love all of you...” (love and... love) speech <sob>

We get a tonne more Dean reaction shots than we do Sam or Mary reaction shots - this whole heart-wrenching scenario is particularly between them, the camera tells us...

Goddam it - SAD STRING MUSIC and Cas cries when Dean says, “Like you said, you’re family, and we don’t leave family behind.”

Now we see the Winchesters’ preparation (which we’ve seen before) in rapid speed up - Sam once again pouring holy oil on the floor of the barn. Dean with some Men of Letters magical knuckle dusters. The moment when Ramiel throws Crowley through the barn wall repeats, again...

Now we’re onto something new - once again the furthest point in time we’ve reached in the narrative.

Ramiel is basically pretty decent for a demon - he “went fishing”, i.e. off the grid, leading a quiet human-esque life, like Cain during his retirement years, and we know (although Sam, Dean and Cas don’t) that he’s right - the Winchesters did barge in and steal something from him - they are getting what was coming to them.

Interesting isn’t it - that they’ve trapped him with holy oil? That shit works on angels. Ramiel as a fallen angel (as he is depicted in the Book of Enoch - one of the Watcher angels, who fell for human women, leading to the creation of Nephilim) is given further credence...

Now, the ticking we’ve heard throughout the episode gets visual expression, as Ramiel gives the Winchesters 30 secs to return his stolen property...

And STILL Mary doesn’t speak (girl you are making some VERY BAD CHOICES here..)

Ramiel breaks the holy oil circle with the lance of Michael and kicks the crap out of the Winchesters - but Sammy manages to spear him with his own weapon and pooof - goodbye Prince of Hell. Sam Winchester, you are scarily good sometimes.

Cas is foaming black goo from the mouth - he’s dying. Dean’s heart is breaking.

Freaking Crowley dusts himself off, and, son of a witch that he is, figures out that the Michael lance is a magical object and therefore - break the runes, break the magic...

He snaps it and saves Dean’s heart, Castiel’s life, and the day...

The Winchesters are gob-smacked (c’mon Dean, haven’t you worked it out yet - the King of Hell is in love with you).

Crowley sass-master - “You’re welcome!”, dramatic spear drop - POOF!

Bit of hand-holding goes down...

Resolution to the narrative horn music plays, Tarantino style.

Cas asks what Ramiel meant about stealing. Mary looks guilty, but gets cut off by Dean who says “Let’s go home,” to Cas. Awwwww. Dean picks up the broken Michael spear, and they leave the barn.

Shot of Mary looking guilty as hell...

Here’s the other end to our Mr. Ketch bookend opener (”Tell me a story...”).

We’re back to where we started - our furthest point in the time stream - Ketch and Mary over coffee in a diner and she is narrating the whole thing to him retrospectively...

“Well, that’s quite a story...” he says.

Mary is pissed and threatens Ketch, “If anything like that happens again, I will burn you down, all of you...” Erm, Mary, hasn’t this taught you to run a mile in the other direction to the BMOL, RIGHT NOW??!

Ketch likes her spunk however - sexual tension eye-challenge across the table.. (Ketch is a John mirror here)....

The item Mary stole from Ramiel for Mr. Ketch is revealed as..... the Colt.

GASP...

Cut to Crowley on the phone to a minion, “Search that house, search it again! Find me that gun!”

Of course, Crowley knew Ramiel had the Colt as he’d given it to him.

And now - oh no - he probably thinks Sam and Dean stole it and hid that little fact from him (more heartbreak for Crowley as he really came through for the Winchesters saving Cas here).

Uh-oh - Lucifer is there in his cage, back in Hell, to whisper poison about betrayal into Crowley’s ear...

“I still can’t believe you’re working for the Dukes of Half Hazard...Do you really think they care about you?”

Luci - Crowley has Flickr albums to prove it!

“It’s only a matter of time before they come for you...”

Mark Pellegrino’s instantly chilling, layered Lucifer is back... YAY!

Does Crowley’s “Shut your mouth, dog!” already sound a bit uncertain?

I smell an Iago and Othello scenario (Yes, that means Dean is Desdemona)..

END CREDITS....

CONCLUSION

I love narratives which play with time and are non-linear. Obviously, this is done here as a tribute to Reservoir Dogs.

But what does it tells us, within the SPN universe?

I like to think there is something about the way supernatural beings like Crowley and Cas experience time differently from humans (not least because their life-spans are so much longer) in the mix.

There are some odd little time-loops as well as the larger ones. These draw attention to character moments - like Crowley getting his heart stomped on by Dean (again) in the barn, like Cas sensing that something is a bit off with Mary - she’s lying to him.

Repeat sequences highlight the subtext too - this episode runs with the Castiel-Dean-Crowley love triangle of Heaven and Hell big time, in keeping with the homoerotic subtext of Reservoir Dogs itself . We visit the diner three times - once from Mary’s POV, once from Cas’ and once from Mary’s POV again. Mary is watching “Performing Dean” and is by turns rather appalled and rather amused by it. She sees through (at least some of) it. Cas just cuts all Dean’s “teachable moment” hey Cas flirt with this waitress crap out - he tunes his human friends out sometimes - bless. But that means Cas also misses Dean’s other tells, like his “devastatingly handsome” description of the angel himself. Aka - Cas does not have a clue that Dean has sexual feelings for him.

On a larger scale, this episode is told from three POV’s - Mary’s mostly, with some Cas and some of Crowley’s POV.

That is for a very good reason. Mary, Cas and Crowley are all “family” to the brothers Winchester. Yes, Crowley is a frenemy, but he and Dean shared a “summer of love” and a “bromance” (which involved sex with triplets) and in this episode Crowley does something very selfless for them - he saves Castiel’s life even though it costs him a weapon which could have killed Lucifer.

This means Sam and Dean are going to be put in the middle of a huge conflict coming up - with Mary on one side with the BMOL, who want a world where “No one has to die because of the supernatural” (suggesting a supernatural genocide may be planned) and with Cas and Crowley, as supernatural beings whom the Winchesters care about, on the other.

TICK TOCK...

#SUpernatural #12x12 #Stuck in the Middle With You #SPN meta #Meta #Time and narrative

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