It's doubly Lee's fault!

I've been primed to look at everything on Supernatural through a socially-aware lens, since I started complaining last season about how it was an all-boy universe. The woman quotient (and more importantly, the woman neither screamy-helpless nor Evil quotient) has gone way up, but, it's hard for me to turn off my reality-meter now it's on.

Like, I watched Buffy for seven years able to ignore or hand-wave serious social-reality phenomena, but, it's harder for me to do that now. If only Supernatural were funnier!!

FWIW, I too noted there was a non-white cop in the background of the arrest scene.

it's hard for me to turn off my reality-meter now it's on.

As long as they keep battling demons in their own mythology, it's not something I have a problem with.

I'm just...I'm just not an apologist. I swear to god. I have no particular fondness for the people who produce the show. It's just that I, from a politically and racially charged background, would have to work to lay an offensive template over some of the things to which people are reacting viscerally. There's a little voice in the back of my head asking "I bet those coonin' minstrelsy performers were grateful for the money too," but that's the best I can do with skepticism.

Gordon, to me, was primarily just a guy. There are things the text could have done to raise my eyebrows, but he wasn't punished by the patriarchy for sleeping with a white woman, nor prevented from eating/sitting/drinking outside of where he was allowed, nor strung up by a group of white men. He wasn't portrayed as particularly stupid (just plot-required stupid), cowardly, or lazy. He was portrayed as a guy who wasn't even going to pay for all the crimes he'd committed, probably. Just a lawbreaker arrested. Just a guy.

And, fuck it, I'm glad the actor got the gig. Go him. It's a role written without much shading, but he's working the hell out of that bitch. And I can't imagine the role was written with race in mind.

::jubilation/I'm down on my knees/I'm begging you please..::

Yeah, need to get that out of my head.

eta:

I too noted there was a non-white cop in the background of the arrest scene.

Does this affect anyone's discomfort, those of you who were bothered?

I didn't see him/her. I saw COPS. (Not the TV show.) They were uniforms and weapons, not people at all. (Really, as befits a bunch of extras acting as a plot device.)

I agree, that Gordon has the potential to be a [non-racially-significant] Guy. We've got enough backstory on him to be tantalized and speculative about his emo pain; he wears a cowboy hat; he seems very interested in Dean's approval. He's nearly to that level of personhood that the vast majority of guest-stars don't even attempt. Just that one scene freaked me out, really. It's hard for me to watch that scene and not apply reality-context.

Nothing about Gordon and the cops pinged me. I just saw Sam come up with a sensible way to get Gordon out of the way without killing him. I did wonder if Sam had tipped them of that Gordon might be the man who killed what's his name at the beginning of the episode.

I didn't see him/her. I saw COPS. (Not the TV show.) They were uniforms and weapons, not people at all. (Really, as befits a bunch of extras acting as a plot device.)

I saw it this way too. I didn't know any of the characters before last night. None of the scenes made my mind head in a race direction. Was just people. I don't know if something in the previously established relationships would have made me view them in a different light.

Nutty, in the same way as you just saw people with guns, I just saw Gordon the person being arrested.

I just saw Gordon the person being arrested.

me too. The way Gordon as a character was written was so race neutral to me that his capture didn't ping any racial reaction.

There are 2 (!) director's cuts for next week's Supernatural.

And they are both made of awesome!