serial:

And can I say, obviously, how chuffed I was that Lisa mentioned Dean's drinking? Y'all know I'm obsessed, but I thought it was way too obvious to be trivial, still.

And, of course, Castiel pouring him the drink with no verbal communication on the topic had me pleased as punch. No pun intended. Any Show non-verbal communication pleases me, but when it's facilitating an addiction, it's even better.

How much were we supposed to take away that the truth didn't remotely make Dean suicidal? Even if Sam had told the truth, he's obviously closer to homicidal than anything else. Lisa depressed the hell out of him (and how I love that Dean), and Bobby grossed him out, but it didn't look like Veritas was going to have a simple time getting her tribute out of him.

but it didn't look like Veritas was going to have a simple time getting her tribute out of him.

What I thought was awesome about that is that no one knows better than Dean that the truth is never simple, and a truth doesn't have to be the whole truth.

I think Sam is doing good, yes, but he's not actually motivated by the good end (which is what I took away from him telling Dean that he needed him). He's hunting, because he's good at it, and it *feels* good for values of feel that maybe right now equal only the physical sensations of adrenaline rush and endorphins, or maybe a kind of cerebral curiosity being satisfied.

It plays really well with Sam paying for a prostitute -- if he knows he can't make an emotional connection right now or anymore, he can still *feel* (physically) good in the sack.

How much were we supposed to take away that the truth didn't remotely make Dean suicidal?

I'm not sure he was quite there yet, but I don't buy that he wouldn't get there. Dean is nothing if not pragmatic, and at that point he still had a case to work, something to focus on, i.e. Sam. If Sam had died or taken off or whatever, the suicidal impulse might have risen its head a little more boldly.

I think, sadly, that Dean is also very well aware of the truth of his life, and a lot of people aren't. So it's not as much of a surprise to him as it would be to some folks that his life is made of a lot of suck.

So it's not as much of a surprise to him as it would be to some folks that his life is made of a lot of suck.

Yeah, he's pretty much written the book on examination of the downside of his life, and he's never actually looking at the good stuff. So what can the truth tell him now and make it worse?

I'm reading people's opinion that Lisa's speech makes Wincest essentially canon. Are these people that can't conceive of a complicated platonic relationship? An unhealthy but non-sexual one? I totally don't get it.

I wonder how much Lisa we'll see from here on in. I don't want her to be killed to free up Dean, but I do think she was highly right (and should have been dealing with this all along), and a reconciliation would make me twitchy.

Well, I think they could stay friends. I mean she doesn't need to hate him or dislike him (once she understands that Dean was under supernatural influence when he hit Ben). But she may need to permanently stop seeing him. Or see him only under controlled conditions, like he uses some of the money from credit card fraud for her to meet him occasionally in a motel. (Unless she is making more than I think she is at her job, then she can pay half.)

If Sam had died or taken off or whatever, the suicidal impulse might have risen its head a little more boldly.

Eh, Dean was messed up but still able to go on despite honestly believing his brother was rotting in the lowest depths of Hell as Lucifer & Michael's chewtoy. I think Veritas would have had to content herself with the do-it-yourself approach to meal preparation in his case.

I think also, with Dean and even Sam, nobody really knows them. They're not stationary enough to develop a broad spectrum of aquaintances and "I know your face if not your name" people who are familiar with them, even in the vaguest of ways. So unless Dean went out of his way to call the other two or five people still alive that he knows, it's only strangers vomiting truth about themselves, and that's only depressing for them. And Bobby's truth-binge was actually fairly innocuous, so maybe the curse gets diluted over the phone?

maybe the curse gets diluted over the phone?

Didn't seem dilute with Lisa.

But where Bobby said "why am I telling you this?", Lisa said "that came out more harshly than I meant," or something to that effect. She didn't tell him a truth she wasn't willing to tell, she just did it a little more bluntly.

Wait, there's going to be a Gabriel big bang? I hope it gets gatecrashed with Wincest and D/C /is petty.