Scenes I Love . . .
"Shadow" cont.
The next scene opens with Sam lurking outside Meg’s apartment when his phone rings.
“Let me guess,” says Dean. “You’re lurking outside that poor girl’s apartment, aren’t you?”
“No,” Sam protests. Dean waits. “Yes,” Sam acknowledges.
Dean reports that Meg Masters’ identity appears to be legit, and he’s also acquired some information on the symbol from John’s friend Caleb. (This is, notably, the second mention of Caleb in the show. Sam was last seen talking to him on the phone at the beginning of “Asylum”. It’s a hint that he may yet have a more important role to play.) It seems it’s a sigil for a Zoroastrian Daeva – a four thousand year old “demon of darkness” – that Dean describes as “savage, animalistic”. He notes that they need to be summoned by a handler but “it’s pretty risky business . . . these suckers tend to bite the hand that feeds them . . .” In other words, it is like the Id: the unconscious part of the psyche that is concerned only with the most basic animal instincts – need, desire, fear, anger – with no awareness of logic or consequence. The concepts of the Id in Freudian psychology and the Jungian Shadow, while not completely synonymous, represent roughly equivalent concepts: a part of the self that is often unacknowledged and even repressed by the conscious mind, but which nevertheless fundamentally drives the individual’s behaviour. Like the Daevas, the Id can never be entirely controlled by the Ego.
Playing the role of the Id, Dean encourages Sam to act on his animalistic urges:
Playing the role of the Ego, Sam suppresses his Id by hanging up on him 😁
However, he is unable to free himself from temptation since, when he turns his attention back to Meg’s apartment he sees her undressing:
He squirms with discomfort but, nevertheless, continues his surveillance . . . until a woman passing the car notices his observation and clears her throat pointedly.
“Oh, no, no, no, I’m just— ” Sam protests, flustered, but to no avail.
And another guest actor shines in a tiny but colourful character role: on screen for a matter of seconds, she still manages to make an impression.
Presently Sam sees Meg leaving the apartment and he follows her to what appears to be an abandoned fashion warehouse. Once inside, he discovers that following Meg will require him to climb an old elevator shaft. In a Demon arc episode, and especially one that plays so much on Jungian symbolism, it seems significant that we once again see a return of the Sam in a cage imagery:
I must confess, watching Sam’s athleticism as he climbs up the shaft (itself a Freudian image), I might need to suppress some animalistic urges of my own! 😉
At the top of the shaft, a pair of naked mandarins continue the episode’s sexual themes . . .
while a heavy chain elaborates the captivity theme, with overtones of sexual bondage:
I find myself thinking of the chains that bind the lovers on The Devil tarot card. Whether that was also in Kripke’s or Manners’ mind I couldn’t say, but we will shortly see an overt reference to the Tarot in the set dressing for this scene.
Sam sees Meg and we watch her approach a table where we get a beautiful foreground shot of a familiar and gruesome vessel:
Sam overhears the spell she performs over the chalice of blood, then she is evidently communicating with someone, apparently warning them of the brothers’ appearance in town, but she is cut off and clearly receiving orders.
“I’ll be here, waiting for you,” she says at the close of the conversation, then bends over to extinguish a candle.
There’s conscious eroticism in this frame that focuses on her mouth as she gently blows on the flame.
So, who will she be waiting for, I wonder? The sly double meaning of her words can only be appreciated in retrospect. To whom are they addressed? There’s something faintly smug and knowing in her expression as she stands, turns and – studiously avoids looking in Sam’s direction.
“She knows he’s there,” said my husband the first time we watched the episode.
Yup. As she walks right past Sam’s patently inadequate hiding place, we get this shot of him:
She’d have to be deaf and blind not to have seen him. It’s obvious she meant him to hear every word. And, yes: she’ll be waiting for you, Sam.
The set dressing on Supernatural is always excellent. The attention to the minutia is admirable, and this dark altar is a fine example.
The adage “the Devil’s in the detail” seems particularly pertinent under the circumstances.
Sam’s response is equally apt: “What the hell?” he says.
The next scene opens with Sam lurking outside Meg’s apartment when his phone rings.
“Let me guess,” says Dean. “You’re lurking outside that poor girl’s apartment, aren’t you?”
“No,” Sam protests. Dean waits. “Yes,” Sam acknowledges.
Dean reports that Meg Masters’ identity appears to be legit, and he’s also acquired some information on the symbol from John’s friend Caleb. (This is, notably, the second mention of Caleb in the show. Sam was last seen talking to him on the phone at the beginning of “Asylum”. It’s a hint that he may yet have a more important role to play.) It seems it’s a sigil for a Zoroastrian Daeva – a four thousand year old “demon of darkness” – that Dean describes as “savage, animalistic”. He notes that they need to be summoned by a handler but “it’s pretty risky business . . . these suckers tend to bite the hand that feeds them . . .” In other words, it is like the Id: the unconscious part of the psyche that is concerned only with the most basic animal instincts – need, desire, fear, anger – with no awareness of logic or consequence. The concepts of the Id in Freudian psychology and the Jungian Shadow, while not completely synonymous, represent roughly equivalent concepts: a part of the self that is often unacknowledged and even repressed by the conscious mind, but which nevertheless fundamentally drives the individual’s behaviour. Like the Daevas, the Id can never be entirely controlled by the Ego.
Playing the role of the Id, Dean encourages Sam to act on his animalistic urges:
DEAN: Now, why don’t you go give that girl a private strip-o-gram?
SAM: Bite me.
DEAN: No, bite her. Don’t leave teeth marks, though— Sam? Are you—?
http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/1.16_Shadow_(transcript)
SAM: Bite me.
DEAN: No, bite her. Don’t leave teeth marks, though— Sam? Are you—?
http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/1.16_Shadow_(transcript)
Playing the role of the Ego, Sam suppresses his Id by hanging up on him 😁
However, he is unable to free himself from temptation since, when he turns his attention back to Meg’s apartment he sees her undressing:
He squirms with discomfort but, nevertheless, continues his surveillance . . . until a woman passing the car notices his observation and clears her throat pointedly.
“Oh, no, no, no, I’m just— ” Sam protests, flustered, but to no avail.
And another guest actor shines in a tiny but colourful character role: on screen for a matter of seconds, she still manages to make an impression.
Presently Sam sees Meg leaving the apartment and he follows her to what appears to be an abandoned fashion warehouse. Once inside, he discovers that following Meg will require him to climb an old elevator shaft. In a Demon arc episode, and especially one that plays so much on Jungian symbolism, it seems significant that we once again see a return of the Sam in a cage imagery:
I must confess, watching Sam’s athleticism as he climbs up the shaft (itself a Freudian image), I might need to suppress some animalistic urges of my own! 😉
At the top of the shaft, a pair of naked mandarins continue the episode’s sexual themes . . .
while a heavy chain elaborates the captivity theme, with overtones of sexual bondage:
I find myself thinking of the chains that bind the lovers on The Devil tarot card. Whether that was also in Kripke’s or Manners’ mind I couldn’t say, but we will shortly see an overt reference to the Tarot in the set dressing for this scene.
Sam sees Meg and we watch her approach a table where we get a beautiful foreground shot of a familiar and gruesome vessel:
Sam overhears the spell she performs over the chalice of blood, then she is evidently communicating with someone, apparently warning them of the brothers’ appearance in town, but she is cut off and clearly receiving orders.
“I’ll be here, waiting for you,” she says at the close of the conversation, then bends over to extinguish a candle.
There’s conscious eroticism in this frame that focuses on her mouth as she gently blows on the flame.
So, who will she be waiting for, I wonder? The sly double meaning of her words can only be appreciated in retrospect. To whom are they addressed? There’s something faintly smug and knowing in her expression as she stands, turns and – studiously avoids looking in Sam’s direction.
“She knows he’s there,” said my husband the first time we watched the episode.
Yup. As she walks right past Sam’s patently inadequate hiding place, we get this shot of him:
She’d have to be deaf and blind not to have seen him. It’s obvious she meant him to hear every word. And, yes: she’ll be waiting for you, Sam.
The set dressing on Supernatural is always excellent. The attention to the minutia is admirable, and this dark altar is a fine example.
Note the adaptation of The Magician tarot card in this frame:
The adage “the Devil’s in the detail” seems particularly pertinent under the circumstances.
Sam’s response is equally apt: “What the hell?” he says.