#idk what possessed me i just felt compelled to draw him again

[todayisafridaynight]

long time no mine

[laikuh]

thinking about john today. thinking about selkie dean, but like, the john end of things. 

thinking about the responsibilities john carries when it comes to his kids, but specifically dean since dean listened and dean stayed. thinking about dean telling sam at some point in the early eps that he had to take care of dad, referencing the obligation. and i think it’s easy for me to get focused on that part, like, the fact that dean felt obligated, but im also thinking now about john’s awareness of that obligation. so like, to what extent john felt guilt or remorse or...anything really, for keeping dean chained to him like that. or if john really earnestly felt dean wanted to be there and they were in this fight together. 

i think sometimes the divide on john comes down to that question. the question of whether he really understood what he was doing to his children, or if he really believed the commitment was shared, at least by dean. idk, im thinking selkies again, and the responsibility placed on the person in possession of the skin. the fear inherent in holding on to something so tightly because you know if it’s discovered, if the skin is found, the thing you want will fall apart, will leave. and how as the person who’s keeping the skin, the pelt, you’re also the person witnessing the impact that has on the selkie you’ve trapped. 

idk im tired and sad and thinking about john trapped in his own game of needing dean and wanting dean and knowing that dean won’t (can’t) leave him, and both liking that fact and resenting it. resenting himself for putting dean in this position, resenting dean for not being more like sam and fighting back about it. which is clearly how dean sees himself to an extent, bc his dream self basically lobs that insult right at him. he says years later he’s nothing but a grunt.

and i guess what i want to end on, or what’s sort of the core thing im pondering, is that it’s easier to paint this scenario between dean and john one way, like the relationship functioned in one specific way, but i think it’s a lot more interesting/useful to think instead that neither john nor dean really did understand what they were doing at all times and in every way, and that at different points they were hit by different bolts of clarity around what was happening between them, that were then ultimately contradicted by some other bolt of clarity when put in a different situation. john’s controlling what he can, and dean’s relying on being controlled to survive every day, but they’re also both people with thoughts and feelings and the occasional (i would hope) ability to reflect on how they’re living. 

and i was going to not make this shippy, but i think the draw to dean and john in any sort of physically or emotionally intimate relationship is because folks that see that potential are folks seeing the gaps between those moments of clarity. like, we do not know specifically what growing up was like under john winchester, and we doubly don’t know what life was like for them when sam was gone. and there are so many layers to the dynamic between dean and john that it’s hard (for some of us anyway) not to feel compelled to identify those gaps (by which i mean the gaps im assuming exist between their own understandings of themselves in relation to the other) and dig our fingers in to see what’s really there. 

like...i think when your frame of reference for normal and healthy is as fucked as it is for the winchesters, there are endless possible ways that trust and intimacy and power can be exchanged. especially when there’s such an initial imbalance on one front (father and son, which carries with it imbalances around age and experience) and yet something a little more equal on other fronts (parentification with dean, dean being put in a position to emotionally support his father from a young age). like, i don’t mean dean is an equal to john, im just thinking about how to each of them with their fucked up boundaries and unhealthy coping skills, their relationship my feel like a funhouse mirror whose reflection (understanding) changes shape depending on a number of different factors. and that is fun and sad and compelling to think about as a fan/viewer.

[bettycooperoutfitwatch]

4x05 Chapter Sixty-Two: Witness for the Prosecution

Be forewarned: Sweater discourse. 

(I merely include this moment because Betty is technically in the frame.)

But contemporary Betty begins the episode in a pink-and-white knit top with short sleeves. She’ll end the ep in a pink-and-white knit with short sleeves, too, but standby.   

Betty wore this knit top to help Jughead torch the trailer-turned-Fizzle-Rocks-lab. We get a better glimpse this time around (glad to know it survived all that soot and ash and car sex.)

Love the little two button-detail on the rear-sleeves.

Ten Little Boy Scouts. 

Well! I guess you gotta dress the part. 

Off the top of my head, I can’t recall another instance of Betty in this very true-blue shade. It’s more of an Archie color. But the FBI has a brand, so. 

(It’s delicate. But potent.)

We get such extreme and vivid close-ups during Betty’s serial-killer-savant moment that I felt compelled to include them. Love the eyeshadow.  

She pairs the Junior FBI polo with a dark skirt (possibly high-waisted shorts, but I’m leaning skirt.)

The Legend of the River Witch. (In red.)

(Bret wears black crew socks, he’s the worst.)

Purple and green! Betty’s all over the range in this episode, fittingly. The ribbing and the scalloping of the pink collar are all motifs we’ve seen before. It reminds me of the scalloped and ribbed top she wore in 219.

Purple pants though, that’s new!

This is the first we’ve seen the bag, but it is a cousin of sorts to the one that appeared during the Stonewall tour in 402. 

The existence of a Dr. Patel in the Riverdale universe leads us to conclude, logically, that somewhere out there in the greater Maple State there exists a Raj Patel. (But when was Riverdale ever logical?)

Betty’s the only girl in this Junior FBI Program (so Kevin’s odds of finding a gay guy here are decent-ish?), but she seems to be the only one with a kid size polo. 

Girl zooms right outta there in her white tennies. 

I love old yearbooks. I cannot tell if he is épée or foil, fencing squad pls come thru (I actually think it might be inconclusive given so much of the diff is in the weight of the weapon, no?) 

FPJ I could get it. LOOK at that James Dean curl. That Jones fam furrowed brow. The out-from-under gaze. 

(Also, these names.)

Betty’s subconscious! We haven’t really been here since 209? Lots of visual 209 connections in this episode... Betty spent 209 trying to hunt down and stop the Black Hood, and when she and Archie seemingly finally did...she felt like it wasn’t the end of the story (and she was right.) 

Anyway—short overalls are a Betty classic at this point, and she’s paired them with a pink t-shirt and her pink low-tops. 

405.

209.

I’m not going to engage with the fact that she’s wearing a bra/lette to bed (this is such a network TV thing)—but these two shirts are really similar. Their color difference might just be slightly too disparate to be down to a difference in color grading—but I do think we’ve all noticed a difference in the color and light in season 4 versus season 2. (Oh how I long for the clear tones of season 1, if only for the clarity of screen caps.)  

I love this whole party scene, but doesn’t it feel like it might end up being significant beyond this episode? 

Anyway, back to Betty the Serial Killer Whisperer. 

It’s a good thing she didn’t burn them when Alice suggested it. 

Yellow Keds. 

Heart earrings 💙 Or triangles, idk. 

Little Betty! At one point, pink-and-red seemed to be connected to Betty’s relationship with Archie, but here I’m honestly not drawing those kind of conclusions. This scene has a different purpose. 

Little Betty’s wardrobe is consistent between Teenage Betty’s dream and her retelling of the Caramel Incident to Kevin. Of course, it’s simply easier to have a single wardrobe for these things, but Riverdale’s made the decision to mix it up before (albeit on higher budget episodes.)

Let’s interpret this costuming consistency as the narrative giving Betty the benefit of the doubt. She’s able to see some things clearly, even if she’s repressed some deeply upsetting shit her father forced her to do. I’m having Old Yeller flashbacks. 

I don’t even know if I’m implying anything, I just really like the visual parallel and that I’m being forced to think about it. 

The Haunting of Maple Manor.

👀

Again with the 209 echoes. 

The Secret of the Old Windmill.

(only $1.95!)

“Lil Forsythe III”

It perhaps takes a special kind of zeal to take your half-brother’s confidence that he, too, possesses the serial killer genes and decide not that it means you’re gonna be just fine—but that instead, he’s sus. 

But I dunno, gotta break some eggs in order to make an omelette, etc. 

I’ll just repeat that genes are not destiny.

Stripes, ribbed knit, short sleeves, pinks and blues—all very Betty. 

However, not sure we’ve ever seen Betty in a baseball cap before, even in previous investigation modes! 

I think this might be her purple non-investigation jacket that we first saw in 213 (and most recently in 314.) It’s the sturdy jacket she wears when she finds herself in...less savory efforts, shall we say. 

But! Another flash-forward!

Poor Archie.

“What’s happening?”

“Wait are we getting up?”

“Okay okay I’ll get up too.”

This sweater is, apparently, divisive. I’ve actually already talked about it a bit in response to an ask. It reminds me of something a Sweater Girl would wear, and I find it really interesting to consider Betty in that context. A sweater is ‘wholesome,’ but a Sweater Girl is seen as sexual—and therefore as something dangerous and corrupting. A patriarchal society fears nothing greater than a woman with some agency. FP storms into this classroom and declares Betty—this whole trio—to be under arrest for murdering Jughead.

This sweater is a bit like Archie’s dial television, or his rotary phone. It’s almost so anachronistic as to be noticeable. 

To be brief—there’s something about this sweater and the context of this scene that gives this whole flash-forward a very strange vibe. 

Everyone is so shifty-eyed, they have no poker-faces. FP barges in here with two goons behind him, shot Wes Anderson-style. There’s a comics vibe to it. Coen-esque. 

But also I just think it’s something Betty would wear: it’s pink, it’s got a Peter Pan collar, it’s got some lace trim. It’s Betty Cooper in disguise as Betty Cooper, and it’s not the first time she’s tried that. 

Summary: I think I’ve got a count of 9—that includes 3 separate instances of the Junior FBI uniform, Teenage Betty’s dream outfit, and the flash forward—but doesn’t include Little Betty. So let’s make it 10. 

Is Betty a River Vixen??: Again, just on Jug’s wall 

That backpack?: Yes, multiple appearances of Backpack 2.0.

The floggingink Memorial Peter Pan Collar Count: The Sweater!

Best outfit: u know wut I’m gonna be staunch and say The Sweater. (I also really love V’s floral crop top in that scene.)