how did they learn he was alive?

We saw Dean learn Bobby was alive.

Count me among the people that thinks there's something off kilter about Bobby. I don't think he's a Leviathon, but briefly I thought he was a joint hallucination.

I think it could have been as simple as his stuff ended up on the cutting room floor for time, but the bits that survived he was behaving strangely (to me). And I still want to know what happened to (between) him and the sheriff.

That last bit with Dean also felt off. I get that he believes ganking her was the right thing to do, but I also think he would have offed the kid. Having not killed him, I think it was very out of character for him to be so callous to a child, even a monster child. Even if that kid wasn't going to kill, I think he will now. He'll have to without mortician mom and a ready supply of corpses.

I love the idea that we're not at the top of the food chain. It's still slaughter, just different beasts.

All the Sam pieces were great, especially young Sam. Damn, that kid can act. He is one to watch. Jewel Staite's part was small, and that's fine, I'd forgotten how grating her voice is. The young Amy was awesome!

In that photo Jared just posted, Jensen looks almost S1 young.

I dunno. I buy Dean not ganking the kid. It's the middle ground between him being soft on kids and hard on monsters.

Quick scan of tumblr, and the people I follow hate it, and think that it's Dean character assassination. I'm not sure why...because he lied to Sam? Because he killed Amy?

Interesting that they ended up at a place of Rufus's. I had kinda expected the Campbell's stronghold.

In that photo Jared just posted, Jensen looks almost S1 young.

Took me a minute to realize they look weird because they're still dressed in Sam and Dean clothes.

It's the middle ground between him being soft on kids and hard on monsters.

Being soft on kids doesn't really work with leaving a kid orphaned and alone, especially when he knows he's monster!different, and not exactly going to be able to hack normal life in a foster family.

Being soft on kids doesn't really work with leaving a kid orphaned and alone, especially when he knows he's monster!

That's why I'm calling it a middle ground. He won't kill him because he's a kid who hasn't killed anyone (I think if he had been a murdered, Dean would have killed him), but he won't go so far as to aid and abet a monster.

It's sort of like how they won't kill witches.

Kitsune. Nice slipping in of a Japanese monster there, without any actual Asian people.

Being soft on kids doesn't really work with leaving a kid orphaned and alone, especially when he knows he's monster!different, and not exactly going to be able to hack normal life in a foster family.

This. It felt sloppy and cruel. I'm sure this is what the Dean character assassination fuss is about.

But Dean is absolutely hard on monsters. It takes Sam to talk him down from shit like that, and he was deliberately not there with Sam.

He won't kill him because he's a kid who hasn't killed anyone

But my beef is with the kid part -- leaving a helpless kid alone without a mom, especially one who doesn't know how to feed himself yet, even if feeding himself is wrong. And I guess especially since feeding himself is going to lead to murder.

I'm not angry about it -- I think it's an indication that he's just really far gone in grief and distrust and not operating on usual Dean logic or emotions.

Do you think he should have killed him, then? What were the alternatives?

Yeah, I do. He knew she had a kid -- Sam said so. I was expecting when Amy walked in that the kid was already dead, actually, because I didn't think they would show him doing it. The Dean in my head would have dispatched him quickly and as painlessly as possible, with a muttered, "I'm sorry, kid."

The fact that he seemed surprised to see the kid there at all, and was obviously ready to leave that room without wondering where the kid was before he showed up in the doorway, seems sloppier than Dean's usual MO. Especially for a guy who had the wherewithal to find Amy in the first place, ditch Sam, and be waiting for her.

The fact that he hadn't thought about what to do with the kid seems weird to me. But I'm chalking it up to him being a little off his game right now, and messed up emotionally.