SPN 5x07 picspam: the red, the blue, and the morally ambiguous
The bulk of my meta is going on here. The ensuing discussion is rocking my socks because I didn't actually expect this episode to be so thinky, but it turns out it is, and people are leaving insightful comments.
This show as always gives great eye-candy, and not just in the sense that the actors are easy on the eyes. The people in charge of the set and lighting design and cinematography need more love. Keymashing, capslocky, technical design love. <3
ETA: eep, I am failboat today. Caps are by oxoniensis, resizing, coloring, and fiddling by me.
There is a lot going on in this ep character-wise -- I'll echo girlmostlikely's sentiment that sure, the episode was filler, but it's good filler.
The one recurrent thing visually I noticed was the use of red and blue. In 5x06 I thought red and blue represented Sam and Dean's messy, morally ambiguous, bright human world. I think that's continuing here, with red also used in its familiar role as a warning signal. The first part of the episode was shot mostly in daylight, and the colors were fairly normal, even vivid and bright, as when they interview the wife. Right around the time Bobby arrives and tells Dean he's lost 25 years, the episode gets a lot more desaturated and dark, the scenes are mostly (although not all) at night. The use of red or blue stands out even more.
Okay, I am probably reading way too much into this but right between Sam and Dean there is a big glowy neon sign -- in red and blue -- that says "OPEN."
They seemed more comfortable together in this episode than they have for a while, and the rift has been healing. OPEN. That made me grin. Also note that Patrick -- who is a morally ambiguous witch -- is wearing a blue shirt.
All poker tables pretty much have a green felt top so I don't want to make a bigger thing out of this than it is but -- the table didn't have to be a standard poker table, it could've been a wooden table. In 5x04 green was a color that seemed to be associated with future!Dean, heading the wrong direction. Bobby makes a really bad choice in this episode and gambles his years away, and then Dean jumps down into that hole with him. Also, Patrick's poker chips are red.
There's that godawful red chandelier behind Sam (the set designers on this show have developed their own virtuoso levels of kitsch for the motel rooms -- I mean that as a compliment), and red curtains. Then I noticed blue background for Sam and red background for old!Dean, as Dean tells Sam he lost his years in a poker game.
Then they put the red chandelier behind old!Dean when he's hitting on the maid. That street shot is some blatant use of bright reds and blues -- the visual elements, if not the colors, also look really noir. In that third image, I'm wondering "why Cicero?" and can't think of anything, but mostly I'm noting that bright red STOP sign.
That shot is right before Bobby has his confession meltdown about feeling useless (oh, Bobby). Earlier it was OPEN for Sam and Dean (red and blue), while here it's STOP for Bobby (only red). Yeah, Bobby, you're going off the rails -- STOP IT. D: Dean and Sam, you can keep doing that being communicative and not hiding stuff from each other thing.
Sam's badass poker game with Patrick. I already talked about this in the meta post, but I am still that jazzed about how Sam took all that fear for Dean, the very thing that the baddies on the show twist and use against them, and turned it into a weapon. All while being genuinely terrified and so afraid of losing Dean he's sweating.
SAM WINCHESTER IS SO AWESOME THIS PICSPAM CANNOT CONTAIN IT.
This is here simply because I thought the graveyard scene with Dean and Bobby was beautiful and also I do like it when the characters have discussion in graveyards.
I really liked what the episode did with Patrick and Lia, and how with a few strokes the episode implied a long, epic backstory. (Thoughts on gender are at the meta post).
If you ask me if I teared up just resizing and coloring the caps of this scene, I WILL DENY IT.
This show as always gives great eye-candy, and not just in the sense that the actors are easy on the eyes. The people in charge of the set and lighting design and cinematography need more love. Keymashing, capslocky, technical design love. <3
ETA: eep, I am failboat today. Caps are by oxoniensis, resizing, coloring, and fiddling by me.
There is a lot going on in this ep character-wise -- I'll echo girlmostlikely's sentiment that sure, the episode was filler, but it's good filler.
The one recurrent thing visually I noticed was the use of red and blue. In 5x06 I thought red and blue represented Sam and Dean's messy, morally ambiguous, bright human world. I think that's continuing here, with red also used in its familiar role as a warning signal. The first part of the episode was shot mostly in daylight, and the colors were fairly normal, even vivid and bright, as when they interview the wife. Right around the time Bobby arrives and tells Dean he's lost 25 years, the episode gets a lot more desaturated and dark, the scenes are mostly (although not all) at night. The use of red or blue stands out even more.
Okay, I am probably reading way too much into this but right between Sam and Dean there is a big glowy neon sign -- in red and blue -- that says "OPEN."
They seemed more comfortable together in this episode than they have for a while, and the rift has been healing. OPEN. That made me grin. Also note that Patrick -- who is a morally ambiguous witch -- is wearing a blue shirt.
All poker tables pretty much have a green felt top so I don't want to make a bigger thing out of this than it is but -- the table didn't have to be a standard poker table, it could've been a wooden table. In 5x04 green was a color that seemed to be associated with future!Dean, heading the wrong direction. Bobby makes a really bad choice in this episode and gambles his years away, and then Dean jumps down into that hole with him. Also, Patrick's poker chips are red.
There's that godawful red chandelier behind Sam (the set designers on this show have developed their own virtuoso levels of kitsch for the motel rooms -- I mean that as a compliment), and red curtains. Then I noticed blue background for Sam and red background for old!Dean, as Dean tells Sam he lost his years in a poker game.
Then they put the red chandelier behind old!Dean when he's hitting on the maid. That street shot is some blatant use of bright reds and blues -- the visual elements, if not the colors, also look really noir. In that third image, I'm wondering "why Cicero?" and can't think of anything, but mostly I'm noting that bright red STOP sign.
That shot is right before Bobby has his confession meltdown about feeling useless (oh, Bobby). Earlier it was OPEN for Sam and Dean (red and blue), while here it's STOP for Bobby (only red). Yeah, Bobby, you're going off the rails -- STOP IT. D: Dean and Sam, you can keep doing that being communicative and not hiding stuff from each other thing.
Sam's badass poker game with Patrick. I already talked about this in the meta post, but I am still that jazzed about how Sam took all that fear for Dean, the very thing that the baddies on the show twist and use against them, and turned it into a weapon. All while being genuinely terrified and so afraid of losing Dean he's sweating.
SAM WINCHESTER IS SO AWESOME THIS PICSPAM CANNOT CONTAIN IT.
This is here simply because I thought the graveyard scene with Dean and Bobby was beautiful and also I do like it when the characters have discussion in graveyards.
I really liked what the episode did with Patrick and Lia, and how with a few strokes the episode implied a long, epic backstory. (Thoughts on gender are at the meta post).
If you ask me if I teared up just resizing and coloring the caps of this scene, I WILL DENY IT.
