Cas though Dean was going to his death and offered to go with him. Then he was the one who asked about Dean when the sun was fixed, ignoring his own father who he has been searching for basically his whole life. Tried to keep good his promise to Dean to look after Sam, was on a mission to do this when he comes to the bunker and… THERE IS DEAN.
HE THROWS HIMSELF AT HIM. LOOK AT THIS KOALA.
Dean doesn’t feel as strongly because he isn’t the one who missed the other, for him it all happened organically, but he still holds his arms out for a hug and fucking SOFTENS INTO THE HUG.
Then Mary is there and fucking hell this exposition….look at her FACE. The way Dean introduces Cas to her… mom this is my boyfriend, could not be more blatant. Then her question, setting us up for who and what Cas is, when the theme of who we are not what we are is so strong all season for ALL of them and… well we all know why I believe Cas KEEPS being asked this question over and over again.
It just sets up the rest of the season so perfectly, with Mary acting like Cas’ mother in law, Dean figuring out what his relationship with Mary can be, what he can tell her and what he feels he has to hide (e.g. his feelings for Cas and John’s parenting), starting to realise that who he is and who he loves (Cas) is ok even if Mary is ‘bad’, metaphorically gives him this look all season, realising that he deserves good things exactly thanks to Mary being a ‘bad’ mother, Sam being missing and it bringing Mary and Dean together against the BMoL’s influence (as per 12×22 finally telling her some truths about himself and it being a GOOD THING, it saving her, it being positive that he was honest and accepting the truth rather than repressing it), Cas floundering around who he is and where he belongs, Cas being the one who ACTUALLY dies and Dean being the one who misses him for a long time…
There’s just so much going on and I love the way Dabb loves to loop the story back around to the beginning, how there is so much of 12×22/23 that links to 12×01/02 and then all the way back to season 1.
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