As much as I'd like to imagine a down-on-his-luck Dean having to resort to hustling of a different sort to pay the bills, we saw that Bobby had a sizable amount of gold on hand last season and the fire that torched his place would have just melted that down, not rendered it worthless.

I think the dragon's gold is supposed to be lasting for quite a while. Bobby mentioned it before he died, too, so he obviously had some left.

Posting this mostly because of JA's smirky smile in the last frame, but also because when did Bobby screw Dean over? Never, as far as I can tell. And the way this is set up, the interviewer obviously means something that happened before Cas's betrayal, so he's not talking about Bobby's death.

Maybe the whole "Bobby not telling Dean Sam was alive" thing? Dean was pretty pissed about that.

Dean is so broken, but for him to attempt to follow Frank's advice -- it gives me hope for Dean.

"Here’s my advice you didn’t ask for: Quit. You want to keep going? You’re going to drive yourself into the ground first. Do what I did when I was 26 and I came home to find my wife and two kids gutted on the floor: Decide to be fine ‘til the end of the week. Make yourself smile because you’re alive and that’s your job. Then do it again the next week. I call it being professional. Do it right, with a smile, or don’t do it."

Love this. I believe Adam Glass is doing wonderful things with Show these days.

Oh, and ghost Bobby drank the beer. There was a sound effect as Dean peered down at the bottle. Bobby will be a benevolent spirit - there's plenty of canon supporting the idea of helpful ghosts, not the least of which was Mary in "Home".

Of course, I don't know this for sure, but it was too obvious a set-up from "Death's Door".

A sound effect? Now I have to rewatch!

Have we ever had ghosts do stuff like consume mortal food? And do you think it's unrelated to the two other time slippage mentions--Dean's 36 hour nap, and Frank thinking it was only 4 days since Dean had asked him to start work?

Also, why is it not ghost Cas stopping him from being a drunk? IT COULD TOTALLY BE THAT.

Okay, maybe I don't believe that. But I do feel like he either won't be a drunk at the end of the season, or he'll be such a drunk that it's part of the point. Neither of which I'm interested in so much, so I hope I'm making shit up.

eta: Annalee on IO9 sure got that final scene wrong. She thought it was Dean schmooping over Sam, and all Wincesty. She hasn't commented, I don't think, on everyone who pointed out it was more likely to be about Frank's advice, including someone who's read the script.

How . . . it was unequivocally Dean heeding Frank's advice. There's no room for doubt on that, no ambiguity whatsoever.

I'm a glutton for pain, and read a page or two over at TWoP, and one poster remarked "that episode was so anticlimatic. Dean was smiling at the end!" Aargh.

Some people are so oblivious.

That 'smile' at the end was gutting. I roll my eyes forever at Annalee and that TWoP poster.