Why The Mixtape™ is Nothing BUT a Romantic Gesture
In fiction, mixtapes are a symbol of love. While true that they can serve as gestures of familial love—Guardians of the Galaxy is an obvious example—they are far more iconic for embodying romantic love, and you would certainly be hard-pressed to dig up an example of a mixtape being a platonic gift for a friend in any form of media.
That fact alone, however, isn’t proof that Dean’s gift was inherently romantic, so let’s delve deeper into this delightful rabbit hole, starting with two words: Led Zeppelin.
In season twelve itself, Dean recalls that the legendary rock band played a key part in Mary and John’s relationship: When they first met, they were able to bond over a shared passion and knowledge of the lyrics to Led Zeppelin songs.
This is no coincidence. Why draw a connection between John and Mary’s love using Led Zeppelin and then choose, of all the other rock bands Dean enjoys, Led Zeppelin as the sole content on Dean’s mixtape for Cas? It’s labeled with “Zepp Tra xx” so we know exactly what he put on it. That’s not something you can easily wave off as an accident.
Which is why it’s important to explore what purpose (if any) the mixtape serves if it doesn’t hold romantic connotations. I’ve seen arguments like the one below, and I just gotta tell you, they’re not deeply-rooted in much fact or awareness for how literary devices and cinematic techniques work:
In 9x18 “Meta Fiction”, Metatron provides Castiel with the knowledge of every piece of media he has ever consumed, which we know is a lot, so claiming that Castiel is still ignorant to pop culture is canonically untrue. Additionally, we know Dean doesn’t mind listening to Taylor Swift (10x12 “About a Boy”), so I don’t think it’s accurate to say he’d be horrified if Cas started rockin’ out to “Shake It Off”. You know, because…he did.
There’s a difference between sharing music in real life and sharing music in fictional media. In media, a story is being told and it’s safe to assume that things are being done very deliberately. We don’t see the exchange between Dean and Cas when the mixtape was initially given, so we are forced to derive the meaning of the gift from the single scene it’s presented to us.
What does the scene tell us? Not much. Cas places the tape on the desk. We see a close up of it that blatantly allows us to read what its titled (Cas even taps the label to further draw our attention to what it says). “Um, I just wanted to return this.” Dean picks it up and extends his arm. “It’s a gift. You keep those.” Cue close-up of their hands.
Why is this scene framed so intimately, placing such importance on the mixtape by emphasizing its existence in not one, but two close-ups? Because the mixtape is significant, and it’s more than just an excuse for Castiel to come into Dean’s room—ultimately—to steal the Colt. Something feels off, or missing, this entire scene, because it’s not just about Dean giving Cas a mixtape, yet at the same time we’re given little actual text on what it really is about.
So what is it really about? Because let’s be honest, if this was about Dean giving his platonic dude bro Cas some proper tunes to rock to, we wouldn’t be getting close-ups of this thing, because we’d get a textual explanation on why it was created instead, something like: “Yeah, hey man, this is for you, so you don’t have to keep listening to televangelists when you’re on the road.”
The writers of the episode, and everyone involved with constructing the storyline of this whole season, made a conscious decision to omit so much as a mention of a mixtape outside of 12x19 “The Future”, so there was no build. No expectation. We were taken by collective surprise, regardless of whether we later interpreted it as a good thing or a bad thing. This was done on purpose.
Why? Why not give us the backstory? Because the backstory is supposed to be made clear by the mixtape itself. Remember, thought was poured into titling this tape. No one hurriedly scribbled “DeaNs top 13 Zepp TRA xx” on this prop. It was crafted to look that way. The spelling and lettering is significant. The curious half-space between TRA and xx is worth noting.
Pairs of Xs are recognized as kisses. Why decide to write “tracks” this way? Why decide to place the Xs further apart from the rest of the word, almost encouraging us to interpret them this way instead of dismissing them as simply shorthand. They are clearly lowercase Xs as well, and not capitalized like the rest of the word, further allowing us to think of them as separate.
In my opinion, this mixtape speaks for itself, and I believe it’s supposed to, which is why our focus is purposefully drawn to it and why we are allowed to read its label at all. If it was just a mixtape (ha! I laugh), it would be mystifying to present it to the audience in this particular way. No, this is definitely not just a mixtape. It represents something. It’s symbolic, and universally linked to love, specifically romantic love until explicitly identified as otherwise. Given that, it’s easy enough to read a lot into this scene, especially since the mixtape is never mentioned again, which is surprising for something that was made such a poetic fuss over.
(Dramatic much??)
Close-ups are an artistic decision. Professionally, they’re used with care. You show the audience the tape’s label for a reason, not just so it serves as a piece of trivia. Dean or Cas could have read us the label aloud, so it’s not as if they had no other way of giving us this information, therefore they chose to let us read it ourselves. They chose to let us take note of the spelling and the lettering, which are both things you are unable to display in dialogue, at least subtly and with tack. They did this so we could analyze the label on our own, because it’s important that we’re able to.
Likewise, you don’t show a close-up of Cas accepting the tape from Dean unless it actually means something. Again, we never see the tape after this, and when that’s coupled with the decision to treat it like a plot device anyway, you’re getting a suggestion once more that this is, quite simply, not just a mixtape and it never was intended to be.
All of this proves it’s not deluded to interpret this as a romantic scene, and to the contrary, evidence suggests it’s supposed to be one: Dean gives a mixtape to Cas. But we’ve established the mixtape isn’t a mixtape.
So what is it? Can I suggest love without sounding cheesy?
Yeah, yeah damn right I can.
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