Dear D/C peeps:

I feel so validated! They almost spoke audibly of the love, there was a wobbly chin and sadface, and NO BODY AND NO ASH WINGS. Seriously. It's the biggest fic loophole ever.

I mean, if people can keep resurrecting Gabriel and wiping off his blemishes and sticking Sam's giant peen in his ass, this is no effort in comparison.

I had cats leaping on me for snuggles and kinda missed Sheriff Mills in the THEN, and was thinking "this lady patient is cool, she's so going to wind up dead after being badass" and then the nurse called her Mills, still didn't click, and I finally realized who she was a scene later, and then got really worried. But, it also helped explain why she didn't call security/the cops straight away.

I think I reached the conclusion that those peeps that I wished would cowboy up and ride off a cliff aren't fandom. They're the step in between casual viewer and fandom. Because I like to lie to myself, and also because I can't see how a shipper could be mad at the past two episodes. So many moments and tells the point towards Dean being epically fucked up over what is going on with Cas.

Also, HELLO! Dark show where all the supporting characters die and mostly don't come back except for the two STARS. Misha never should have been given top billing, imho. Maybe I'm just Jossed, but, loving a character and seeing them redeemed seems a surefire way to a quick death.

Honestly, if the last that we saw of **CAS** was him trying to awkwardly atone with Dean, and then telling him to run to save his life, I'm . . . okay with that. and Misha can come back and haunt us as the one eyed one horned giant purple people eater.

They're the step in between casual viewer and fandom

Really? I like to think of them as on the opposite, far end of fandom. They're the same people who want Sam and Dean's personalities to go back to how they were in season [early], or for Dean to stop crying (he REALLY doesn't do it often--we just fetishise it because it's so pretty), and just in general don't want things to change or characters to react to what's happening around them in any lasting way.

Whichever, but I just had the bullshit revelation that they can't possibly be fandom. They post, does that make them fandom? Because there is a huge disconnect in how they view the show. I'm probably being a snob about this. I just cannot comprehend the vitriol, or the concept of watching a show for the crystalized non-existence of a canon relationship. We were fucking blessed that Cas came back TWICE after death.

edit I'm tired (it's almost 2!) and finally parsed your "opposite". More fundamentalist/crazy fandom.

I will give the behind-the-scenes folks kudos. Based on everything I heard before the premiere, I thought Season 7 was going to suck bigtime. And instead I've really enjoyed these two episodes and am getting excited about what they mean for the season arc as a whole.

What did you hear before the season started?

The Butch and Sundance comparisons, descriptions of Dean's character arc seeming sketchy (in the not-much-there sense of the word) and repetitive of last season's, and of course the news about Misha's truncated role. So far everything is shaping up much better than those hints seemed to predict.

It seems to me that both brothers are actually dealing with what they've got. Sam's really not lying out of deception, more out of "You guys had enough to deal with, and couldn't do anything about this anyway. But if it's affecting us, you need to know."

Oh, my heart, Sam. Jared is just knocking the desperate uncertainty out of the park, and it really makes me ache to see him look to Dean for every decision, walk a half-step bahind him, at his shoulder. He's just not at fighting weight, and he's acknowledging that. But it has to be humbling to take that step back into dependence.

I tremble for Bobby, I do, especially after that undisguised affectionate "idjit." for Dean. You give somebody a mushy scene or a line, and you pretty much guarantee they're toast soon after.

I'm liking the season so far. I feel like I know these characters. And I've missed them. I don't doubt we'll see Misha again--like ita said, no ashy wings. They have to retrieve Cas from purgatory. They just have to.

Next week, Jensen's ep?

So, how much S&M Wincest is going to come out of this episode?

Sam/Dean wincest comes out of every episode. But since we saw Lucifer specifically mention that Sam was his 'prison bitch in every way' and then keep on taking Dean's form to torment Sam, I can guarantee that there will be an uptick of Sam/Lucifer-in-Dean's-form fics coming up.

I'm also expecting a rise in stories about Sam becoming a cutter, or starting some other form of self-harm, to help him differentiate between the hallucinations and reality.

Well, at least we now know the lesson of Sam's bandage.

Early on, Castiel told us our bible gets a lot more things wrong than right, so canonically leviathans are open to interpretation.

I think you're right, Morgana. Unless this head injury does something to partially 'lobotomize' Sam (which some war veterans have had done to quell the intense PTSD), I see Sam working to ground himself in physical pain.

Excellent episode. I am totally jazzed about this season and this new Big Bad(s). And I WANT IT TO BE FRIDAY NOW.