Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue: 3x01 screencap meta
The Visual Story at a Glance: "The Magnificent Seven" (3x01) for spnematography.
There are no spoilers for episodes after 3x01, really. Just an acknowledgement of the existence of the episodes.
Originally I was going to meta on a completely different scene, delve into the colours and the whole setting near the beginning of the episode, referencing a this screencap by marishna and the scene around it.
However, that didn't really span out the way I planned, and all I was left with was a handful of notes.
And then I realized that that wasn't the scene speaking to me. Not at all.
That honour goes to the scene near the end.
Specifically the screencap below.
The boys are salting and burning the baddie(s).
What's so intriguing about that?
In all the 49 episodes so far seen (up to and including 3x05), this scene marks the First of several things.
For this is the first time in canon, far as I can tell or remember, that the boys...
- salt and burn more than one corpse at the same time.
- dig the grave themselves instead of just disinterring.
- do any of this in the broad daylight.
This isn't the first time Sam does the salting; in fact, that seemed to be his forte during Season One. And just like in Season One, Dean's the guy with the fuel and the fire. This isn't the first time the boys have company besides each other while doing all this, either. Same thing happened at least in Provenance (1x19). This isn't the first time the possessed people died. This isn't the first time the boys deal with a corpse as fresh as the three in the grave: John was dead probably no longer than a couple of days at the most.
Still... What's so intriguing about those three 'firsts' I mentioned? What can I glean out of them?
The Corpses
Kripke has said in at least one interview (I usually don't follow them, due to being an utter spoilerphobe), that Season Three will be the time of the War. There's no more scuffles in the borders, some half-assed (and less so) attempts at stealth. The time for gathering forces, for recon, is over.
There's no better image I can find to really drive this point home than the screencap above.
"This is what war looks like," says Meg to John in Salvation (1x21). "It has casualties."
And the ones to lose their lives aren't just the demons, their hosts. A hunter died, too, and so would've Sam if a mysterious blonde hadn't appeared to save the day.
The Grave
The boys are well-versed in digging up graves, but they have never in canon, far as my memory can tell, dug the original grave themselves. What does this tell us about them?
At least to me it says, loud and clear, that the boys know exactly what they need to do and are willing to do it. Please note also that even though Bobby joins them just before Dean lights the match, throws it into the grave, in this screencap it's just the two of them, Sam and Dean, together. There's no one else visible, it could be a snapshot of any other salt'n'burn they've done. Save for the daylight, there's nothing in this picture to distinguish from the other hunts.
For this, dousing the grave's contents with salt and fuel, if just par for the course, something they could do in their sleep, the rhythm learned via repetition after repetition.
The boys can do their job, do this, despite whatever else is going on in their lives. This is what they were brought up to do, to live: the hunt and the destruction of evil supernatural things. And cleaning up their own messes.
On another note, the grave the boys dug is definitely not six feet deep. It's a shallow grave, a murderer's grave, a grave associated with wars and natural disasters, epidemics. One might call the opening of the Hell's Gate, the sudden influx of demons rushing out to possess people an epidemic of a kind. The world of Supernatural has stepped into the fray after who knows how long in a Cold War-like state. But the way the show goes, there's hardly anything 'natural' about demons and/or possession. Maybe that will be one revelation down the road: that what we might deem 'supernatural' is, in fact, nothing short of being as natural as humans themselves.
The Light
For the last two seasons, Supernatural has been deemed dark, the action taking place during the night, in the shadows, in the deep recesses of abandoned buildings and underground labyrinths. This episode was surprisingly light in comparison, and the rest of the Season Three has followed suit.
To the extent of the salt'n'burn here taking place in sunlight that brings out the lushness of the greenery, the brightness of the sky.
The time for the covert operations is over.
The fight has stepped out of the shadows and threatens to spill into the lives of innocents, those ignorant of the world of darkness. The fine veil that's keeping the 'civilians' in general oblivious to the 'truth' of demons and ghosties and bogeymen under the bed, the nightmares that are real and the too lively legends, has become gossamer. Who knows what got out of the Gate of Hell?
The War is here, now, and it'll be hard for the layman to ignore it completely anymore.
One does wonder, though...
Did anyone see the smoke from Isaac's pyre, the haphazard grave of the woman and the two guys? How well did the fire consume the bodies? How social were the possessed people? Were any of them listed as 'Missing Persons'? And what will happen once the tiny mass grave is discovered?
I am very, very sorry for not commenting, yet, on all the lovely metas and stories I've caught glimpses of. It's my intention to do so, but... not right now.
Everyone who happens to read this, know that I appreciate any feedback you might have for me, and that I'll try to reply as soon as possible. *gets dragged away by Real Life*