I thought the young Bobby was going to be a younger Sam the first time he appeared. Colin Ford, why did you have to grow up?

Now, I kinda want CF added to the team. He's old enough and independent enough not to be a cousin Oliver.

I'm pressing the palm of my hand to make sure last show wasnt an hallucination.

• Bobby, say hi to Ellen and Jo*

Colin Ford, why did you have to grow up?

He's fine for teen!Sam for a while!

Oh yes, definitely.

I think Dean's "Sam? You gotta carry *me*!" in Bobby's scrapyard was prophetic. I think, despite his issues with his wall falling, hallucinations still going on (I wonder what, or who, he was seeing in the waiting room when he was squeezing the scar on his palm?) Sam's actually developed some coping mechanisms. It's a lot to cope with, but he has them.

Dean, on the other hand, has always been so busy taking care of other people and plowing forward to the next thing and getting done what needs to be done he's neglected or avoided devising any sort of coping strategies. I think avoidance has gone as far as he can push it. I think he's going to fall completely apart, and I think Sam's finally going to have to carry Dean. I also think Sam's been waiting to do that for a long time. And I think more than anybody on earth, Sam's up to the task.

Hmm. I think that's a really interesting thought, Beverly. It'll be very good watching if it goes that way.

I'm scared this season is going to tear Dean down, and when they build him back up again, he won't be a substance abuser.

SNORK.

That's not...oh, hell, yeah, that was funny!

I don't see Dean ever being an evangelical recovering drunk. But I can see him getting back to S1 -- drinking for fun, but not carrying around a flask or using it to get to sleep, or just deal with his life.

I just watched the last ep. It was well done and also gut wrenching. Good lord.

Bobby.

I guess, drinking for fun...I mean, if they totally dried them out--that is one of the things that would make me actually not like the show as much in theory, because I would feel a bit preached at unless they did it well.

However, they have a history of doing things in ways I like them, so you know.

I just like his boozy crutch, with the implication that pills might help him not think so hard about the bad things sometimes, without coming out and saying it.

Cafe De Labielle is doing an advent calendar again this year. I like today's. It's nice and quiet.

I liked today's, too.

I don't think they'll ever dry Dean out completely. In reality, someone like him might have to -- it might be that black and white. This character, though? It's too much a part of him.

And don't forget, even without drinking or pills, Dean always has his other crutches -- sex, Sammy, and guilt.

I just watched the last ep. It was well done and also gut wrenching. Good lord.

I know! I think I'm ready to say good-bye, actually. The episode was so perfect, and explained so much, and was just a great big sad Valentine to Bobby. But I wish they hadn't dragged it out. Now that I've digested it, I think it's time for him to go, and doing it at the very end of the episode really would have been the way to go, without the drawn-out fake suspense.