How a couple seconds of bench shot gave me some positivity
Ok, so I know I’m supposed to be writing for the Great Meta Scavenger Hunt and that’s going but I just really need to talk about this bench. This thing has bugged me since I saw it in 12.01 and honestly, it’s one of the reasons I’m so positive about the season. I absolutely love this shot and I love what it could represent even more. Even if it means some potentially sad things too. Then again, it could also mean nothing but if that’s the case, I question the director here. Look at how dang distinct that bench and it’s God Rays/Slow Reveal is!
(The gif won’t work >.> Pretend it’s pivoting or find the clip.)
Commence me using a couple secs of footage to try and predict the end of the season. It’s worked before heh.
While Dean is speaking to Mary after she’s been resurrected and the sun is up, the camera slowly pans to the right to reveal a bench bathed in very pointed lighting. This framing is almost like a reaction shot, it’s framed as important, a slow reveal. In western cinematography, moving to the right represents positive progress. A shot like this often reveals a character or thing of relief. This is the “I was here all along” shot. Shots like this also often accompany a path reveal or road reveal to give direction and depth to the scene. Close shots like this with accompanied depth often tell the audience where the characters are going to go. This one even has a big swath of shadow between them and the bench, further highlighting it and could be symbolic of crossing a threshold of darkness before finding the light. This season’s gonna be a ride if this shot is to be believed.
Now, why the bench and why here? I’ve been racking my brain since I first saw this to try and figure out what this bench is for. I thought about the other benches in the series and how they are often used to depict character relationships of power dynamics and feelings in a given situation. Mary and Dean are here on one bench in the foreground, discussing their pasts and trying to make sense of each other. However, in comparison to the other bench, they are bathed in shadow and relative darkness. They don’t understand each other here but are looking forward towards the right, the direction of progress in western film. Towards the right, the future, the sunrise. They are lit with almost a reverse key, away from the camera while the bench in the background is lit from above with an almost holy motif.
At this time, I think the bench on the other side is something we will see again at the end of the season. I truly think in some way or another we will come back here with a greater understanding than before and sit in the other bench, looking back on the past uncertainty. Looking back at where Dean and Mary once were and what that journey has meant.
I could see this going a number of ways but here’s two that stuck out:
Either Mary dies before hand and TFW comes here to pay their respects to her once again, stops at the bench and discusses their future and their time with her. This time with a left pivoting camera, showing us where we started and the past. TFW mourning her loss while sitting on the side of a brighter future.
Or Mary comes back here with them for whatever reason, perhaps to visit her own grave and to contemplate how far she’s come. This season makes me very positive about the overall trajectory for the show and its approach to understanding, family and letting go to let others in. Even if the ending may be sad. I think TFW will understand Mary by the end of the season and hopefully understand each other better as well.
There is one other way my brain went with this but it’s more shippery. Dive under the cut if you want to climb around that rabbit hole with me.
Benches in SPN have symbolism on their own but even deeper than that is the symbolism of chairs in general. Chairs in film can tell you a lot about a setting, a character, tone and who the work is about. They are also generally meant to be filled. Empty chairs in film highlight something missing. If you focus on a chair with no one in it, like say here:
You’re highlighting absence. Someone is meant for that chair and they’re missing. Cas is probably the most associated with absence of any character in the show besides Mary previously. He would often whoosh off from the Winchesters, not be able to or wouldn’t answer calls, run off on his own to do his thing, appear and disappear from scenes and my favorite besides the chair:
There’ll be peace when you are done too, Cas. He’s specifically absent from the stage with Mary and Adam. He is being sang to as well. That gap is massive. It’s possible it’s just an angle PoV thing to get the reaction but I’m gonna love it anyway. The yellow and blue set decorations will back me up, right guys?
There was that one time in Season 4 when we even saw Dean and Cas on benches. Benches are meant for more than one person, that’s why they’re benches, but there was a rift of purpose and ideology between them in season 4. They wouldn’t have sat on the same bench back then.
Generally we’ve seen this season that Mary and Cas have a lot of parallels going about their belonging in this world. How they relate to the definition of family and even how they refer to themselves with in it (as uncomfortable and confused as it may make her, Mary still insists the Winchesters call her ‘mom’). @k-vichan had an excellent post going around chronicling their re-watch of the currently aired season 12 episodes and their depictions of family. I think they’re on point. I think family and how those definitions are designated and addressed will be the main focus this season and is a huge subject of the series..
in regards to the parallels, Mary is blood and Cas is not, she belongs automatically and yet, she has trouble accepting easy mode. She needs time alone to figure out how she feels. Cas has been told he belongs but is not blood and is a Supernatural being, something we’ve been historically taught is not how the Winchesters would lean. Both of these characters are completely understandable in their thought processes and it makes sense that they may need time to figure out who they are and who they can be on their own after all that’s happened for them.
I’ve said before that Cas seems to be dissatisfied with his and Dean’s conversation in 11.23 and how that scene; with it’s dutch angles and stilted, cut off dialogue acts more as a setup for further discussion rather than a definitive answer. Cas wants to know who he is to the Winchesters as definitively as possible and so does Mary. They were both soldiers in their time, both devoted to their causes as revealed for Mary in 12.06. Both sure of themselves and their convictions even if they were also both privy to the possibility of another option and were tempted through their lives to explore it outside of their family’s influence.
Which brings us back to the bench. I believe that bench is meant for two people on a return trip to the graveyard. A place for two people to stop and chat while the third goes on ahead. Sad as it is, I do think Mary will join Billie one way or another at the end of the season as the closing of the old ways and to usher in the new order of things. I think Cas will sit with Dean at the end of their journey this season and have a sort of scene similar to Dean and Mary’s or at least with similar undertones. This will be a time of mourning and rebirth. Mary’s definitive exit and Cas’ definitive entrance however they choose to define it. His sunrise, just like in the original bench scene. A new place to start as was given Mary. An understanding between Cas and Dean, however they decide to define it. I’m sure Sam will be around somewhere as well and would have likely made his peace much sooner. He’d probably be at Mary’s grave, waiting for Dean and Cas to meet him and pay their respects. I think Sam’s journey will likely be more personal this time around as he attempts to construct his Independence more cleanly. His journey with Dean will probably still be ongoing to a more healthy relationship but I hope the end of the season is progress for them as they both start to branch out. They will likely have their own form of heart to heart but I can see it being more likely at the grave site after everyone else has gone off to do their own thing.
I think the “family doesn’t end in blood” theme will reach a sticking point or at least start to this season in the form of something big, something bigger than Jody, Claire or any other character.. because they are human. Their presence isn’t loud enough and they seem to want to make their theme as loud as possible. I think this is the season the Winchesters (and by extension humanity in the context of the show) will start to embrace those aspects of themselves they wish to deny, they wish to crush and flee from, the things that scare them or make them feel other themselves. I think this is the season we’ll see them start to embrace the Supernatural and unknown and that requires something loud to counter the history we’ve been given. I think both Dean and Sam will start to explore their independence more and while it will probably result in distrust at first, it’s something needed for them and should lead to a healthier dynamic. I doubt that will mean spending a lot of time apart but I think it will involve them finding further outlets outside each other.
I think what we’re seeing in that bench is a glimpse into the future, a brighter future, a future with less fear and more defined, healthy relationships all around. It’s also very possible that the bench at the end is reserved for Sam and Dean but while Sam and Mary share similar goals, personality and methods, Mary is heavily, /heavily/ paralleled to Cas. The conversation Sam and Dean would have should Mary die again would likely be a retread and unless they decide to out and out destroy the co-dependency there, I don’t think there’s a conversation they could have other than general mourning and memories that would mirror Mary and Deans. I also think their story arc with each other will likely extend past this season. Their relationship is very deep seeded, it’s gonna take a lot for them to come out healthy and still loving on the other side.
As should be obvious, this is all just me musing about how I interpret what’s going on. I could be completely or varying levels of wrong. I don’t mean to get anyone’s hopes up for disappointment but if it doesn’t happen, it’s not the end. We have a whole ‘nother season. This is just something that keeps me hopeful. I hope whatever interpretations you come up with make you happy too.
