It's not for everyone, even if you ship it, because they're completely crazy, but I found it compelling.

So...Bobby. Haunting the flask? What?

I am pretty sure we've had canon where someone stuck around despite their body having been destroyed, right? For some reason I feel convinced of that, without being able to provide a cite. Garth did pony up some immediate exceptions, but I feel sure that we've seen something like it. Does the Hookman count, for instance? He was just around for the silver, right?

The Hookman, and also the psycho little girl from the painting. Her DNA/remains/whatever were in her doll (made with some of her hair). Oh, and also the kid from After School Special, whose dad had ... something of his in his Bible. (I think it was a bible, anyway.)

I'm a little worried that next week is a misdirect, in terms of the preview, but I'm also a little confused about why Bobby can shove a sword and empty a beer and all that, and couldn't respond to Sam with the talking board. I'm also a little wary of ghost!Bobby having the magic answer to defeating the Leviathans, because that's just going to feel like cheating.

That said, I love love love love that he can't let go, that he misses them and is worried about them, and he's holding on so hard, and helping out wherever he can. BOBBY.

Oh, and yes, I think it's definitely tied to the flask.

I'm also a little confused about why Bobby can shove a sword and empty a beer and all that, and couldn't respond to Sam with the talking board.

Because Sam didn't have the flask? Dean's always had it, and the beer and sword and book, etc. all happened to Dean.

But the painting girl and the boy from After School Special had hair that needed to be destroyed. The Hookman wasn't a part of his body. So I'm figuring the boys actually did the impossible and trashed all the Bobby DNA, we have at least one...two! Molly was cremated, wasn't she, and held on purely out of love in Roadkill?

Okay, Bobby could be either of those--attached to the flask like Hook, or just love like Molly.

I wish they'd referred to either of those cases instead of having Garth reel off examples that were new to us.

Anyone notice that the preview's date said April 20th? I am PISSED.

Oh, and a very loud Bobby squee from me! I've missed him so much. Isn't it just like Show to be so much fun, then sucker punch you with a heartbreak at the end.

Damn you, Sera Gamble.

Because Sam didn't have the flask?

Good point! But then why couldn't he answer when Dean asked him to, at least with a physical sign?

I was sort of assuming some kind of DNA was in the flask, even if it was just ... really old backwash inside it? Alcohol can't kill DNA, right? Or ... isn't the casing sort of leathery? He could have bled on it at some point.

There was no DNA from Mary Winchester in Home, but she was around until she took the poltergeist out.

We've seen a lot canonically of benevolent spirits without DNA. Molly the wife looking for her husband, the prostitute ghost in The Usual Suspects, the inmate spirits in Asylum. Bobby's just taken up that same sense of unfinished business. With his knowledge of the supernatural, his sense of purpose, and his strong love for the boys, he's sticking around. He couldn't leave them to deal with Dick and company. It's his connection to the boys that can be looked at as DNA of a sort.

It's his connection to the boys that can be looked at as DNA of a sort.

Aw! I like this explanation.

I said that! Sure, I didn't pick them pretty words, but I kinda said that.

Hmmph.

Sorry -- I'm not fully caffeinated yet. And yes, I know what time it is on the East Coast.