Shadows and Tall Trees I

This picspam is about trees. Regular trees, Family trees, burned trees...
It's something that grew out of WATS and was annspal 's idea I picked up on. A lot of the thinky thoughts are hers or were bounced off her. (Which is why the "I" in this meta won't always stand for me the riveryklown :) )
The basic premise is that trees in the show often, accidentally or purposefully, represent family. From there the idea goes on to envelop family relations, emotional state of the characters regarding their family at any given moment... and I know, I know, Kripke wants his flying heads dammit! But really, for a lot of us, this show is all about family.
The other thing is, the show often uses trees as a center of an episode, think Home and Scarecrow for an example.
Then again, some of these trees are just pretty.
Some other herbs (I tried to avoid flowers because Robin says they have already been covered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ) are included too, mostly to show how often the show uses them and why.



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Pilot:

The first scene in the show was that of a tree...

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...and its shadow. (Hence the title, courtesy of U2)

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Wendigo:

It was a forest, yes, but the marked trees led the way to the trap/wendigo.

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Home:

Some episodes are more tree-heavy than others. This one for instance. It is also the episode that is more about family and family history than any other until In the Beginning. And the crippled, barren but still living tree it all revolves around is the perfect presentation of the Winchesters.

First Jenny finds Winchester's old photo with the lush, green tree in the background:

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Then Sam has the dream, also featuring the tree, destroyed, yes, but with new life growing:

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Then he draws the tree trying to remember! (His skills diminished greatly before Bedtime Stories):

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Then he finds his own copy of the tree photo and compares the two:

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And then they go home, where a new family is trying to make their life:

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Scarecrow:

Another episode that's all about trees:

Not only because they get tied in the orchard in sacrifice for the god, Vanir...

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but because the whole mystery was in the old tree, brought over from Scandinavia....

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runes and all, to ensure protection and prosperity...

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which, Dean believes, has to be 'torched to kill the god.'

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In the end it's the girl who sets the tree on fire, dotting the 'i' of her separation with the family. With no parents and now no close relatives, she burns the last ties to her family.

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Provenance:

Granted it wasn't so much about the trees as it was about the mausoleum...

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But it completes the visual and guards the family mausoleum.

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Salvation:

Fascinating shadow of an invisible tree. At least I can't see the tree the shadows are supposedly coming from. But this is baby-Rose's house, the one YED decided to to come in, so I'm guessing there's subtext there to remind us of the pilot and baby-Sam's house.

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Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things:

Another important tree. It was the first thing that drew Dean's attention to the girl's grave:

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Since this whole episode is in a way a metaphor for John being dead and Dean being alive (despite all laws of nature)...

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...it's a really good switch from the dead tree to these live ones in the next scene.

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The dead vs alive goes on throughout the episode:

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Something Wicked:

Shadows of the trees turning into the witch's hand...

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This monster attacks the kids, youngest of a family, and does so by realizing their most common, least believable fears...

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Croatoan:

The boys spot the clue carved in a pole which of course used to be a tree...

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Houses of the Holy:

Wormwood, says Dean. Grows on the graves of restless spirits. That's what convinces him it's not an angel.

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The bond that the brothers have at this point is in fact much like the vine, entwined and strong. It's one of the things that helps Dean cope with and figure out the problem in the next episode, Born Under a Bad sign.

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With the ever so subtle image of FATHER on the picture above and mentions of Mary and her last day, the family circle is made complete in this episode.

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Roadkill:

There were 2 important trees in this one.

The one Molly hit, big and strong like her love...

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...and the one planted by Greely's grave...

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completely bare but holding on.

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Ironically though, Molly's still live husband...

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...had some seriously beautiful trees in his yard...

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...which the show used to make awesome shots like this one:

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Hollywood Babylon:

The whole shoot was in a faux-forest, this is just one cap of it:

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All Hell Breaks Loose I:

This is possibly the most important tree of all the seasons. It was the one thing that told Sam where they were...

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...and it was the image Andy sent to Dean so he could find them, with Bobby interpreting the image, proving once and for all that "family don't end with blood." Dean's vision:

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A Very Supernatural Christmas:

Trees! This one is all about trees!

First we have the meadowsweets wreaths, which mark the target for the gods:

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As well as the mini-wreaths placed on their necks:

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Next we have the Christmas tree-weapon:

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Then the tiny tree wee!Dean made for wee!Sammy to give him Christmas:

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And finally the tree Sam made to give Dean Christmas:

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With fishing bobbles noticed later across universe:
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This one is a little overwhelming in family-tree-meta. The original idea of Christmas as family holiday and what the tree presents in that aspect, plus the history shown in the episode, the 'too young to be doing this' tree standing in for a proper Christmas tree in flashbacks, the knowledge this could be Dean's last Christmas and what Sam's tree means to Dean in that moment vs what Dean's tree meant to Sam back then and all this poverty and nothing but pure 'thought behind the gesture' set against these beautiful, expensive wreaths and huge, richly decorated trees of the 'perfect' suburban families and the fake everything of the killer gods and their creepy little family... It's fodder for a meta of its own is what I'm saying. Also, someone put a dot or two in that sentence?
PS I'd choose the Winchesters' ridiculous little tree any day.

Dream a Little Dream of Me:

Well, this whole episode is based on a one plant, African dream root aka Silene Capensis:

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I would really like to see some meta (done by someone else thankyouverymuch :) ) on this, because - a gigantic apple tree full of fruits?

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Dean's subconscious turns the forest into a hallway where he's practically guided to face his fears. As well as his father.

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Time Is on My Side:

Dean notices Devil’s Shoestring over Bella's door and figures out she made a deal too. Seeing that bit of plant gave Dean the luxury of knowing Bela would be taken care of so he didn't have to become the cold blooded killer like she wanted him to.

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Season 4 had very few tree metaphors. They also spent less time in forests. In S1 they had at least one scene per episode in a forest, how ever unlikely it was. Excelent way to bring home Kripke's torture device that was the distance between the brothers in S4.
Besides the family tree idea, there's also the "can't see the forest for the trees" idiom. I think this could have meaning since the boys have been asked to understand the BIG PICTURE more than once.

Lazarus Rising:

Is there a better metaphor for the utter destruction (of family) Sam was left with?
However, within the destruction, there's the green clearing - an island of hope?

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Heaven and Hell:

Where Anna's Grace touched down a beautiful tree grew up...

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I just wish we had a clearer shot of it because it really did look amazing.

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I know the split between the boys had already started by this episode, and had yet to reach the highest point, but this was the only truly relevant, single tree in this season, and I chose to hope it was a reminder that in the end, it IS all about family.
Anna's tree was born of grace (Anna's connection to her heavenly father?) and exhibited that in miraculous growth. Despite the tree's healthy strong GLOWING appearance, its grace had been stolen, and I can imagine it drying out to become ordinary and over time becoming twisted into a more typical SPN tree. How sad is that? I want Anna to go re-visit the tree and give it just a drop of her grace.

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These are all the truly important trees.

Interesting shots etc are in Part 2 because of size.  >>