( continues...) his pain or the potential for his pain in every little boy's eyes, and he hones right in on that fear and makes them feel safer.

That sock puppet might haunt my dreams. Genderbending pieces of clothes is one thing to come to terms with, but that mouth really does make me wonder if Mr. Frizzles is Garth's special friend. Me and Dean entirely on the same page there.

I know show's not supposed to be a PSA or anything, but I did like that they had one explicit instance of avoiding drinking and driving. I'm not entirely sure how the alcohol hit and unhit quickly enough to make all the timeframes possible, but there you go. I also have no clear memory of how easy it is for Tess to get drunk off of a mouthful, or Garth that fast out of a bottle he didn't even seem to open his mouth for.

I was so worried about how they'd treat drinking and drunkenness in this episode, since I've been more than vocal about my feelings on Dean's drinking. Which I had actually taken his word on stopping after Slice Girls, but I think unreliable has come up before in this very tl/dr post. I'd imagine he's picking up a bit few chicks now, and in my fanon, now that Cas is officially clear, he can't keep it up for anyone.

Though he wonders how Daphne is doing, and maybe he should say something to her, but what can you say to another devout woman whose husband you stole from her? I sense sympathy sex might be in order here.

But anyway, back to booze. I liked Dean's flip "It's not food. It's whatever water is." and Sam's later "Isn't this like a vitamin to you?" while Sam knows full well it's the breakfast of champion hunters, even though Dean is being excessive. Homeslice drinks his fair amount.

But mostly, I liked the definitive way they showed Dean would have to go to new and further steps to get properly hammered, and that they were impaired and slow on their game, but they weren't weaving back and forth and slurring unintelligibly and guffawing at private jokes until they passed out in a pool of their own aromatic stomach contents.

Of all of the "please, don't go there, you'll highly offend me when you go wrong" potential (and actuality--cf one random Japanese waiter), I think they've handled the substance abuse and PTSD pretty well.

Oh! I also loved that they explicitly processed their feelings by the car. It's not even the car, but Sam took advantage of the familiar set up to push Dean for information. And, lo! Dean shared! Two more sphincters with a little less skull wedged up them. Sam and Dean are talking about their issues, even if it's months later.

Okay, I may end up c/p much of this to IO9. I can't have all those thinks again in new words, and I'm out of thinks for the next ten, fifteen mins.

I just love that they were driving a Pacer. There's no way Jared could be comfortable behind the wheel of that thing. And Garth's car was awesome, too -- El Camino! With wood panels, no less!

The drinking was not entirely believable, but I don't care. With the kid, I think she was a child actor trying hard to show she felt a little funny, but I don't think she was supposed to be *drunk*. A big gulp would have gone to her head, though.

Garth is so thin, and as proclaimed non-drinker, I could absolutely see one beer, gulped, making him drunk. I can't really imagine what it would take to get Dean stumbling and incoherent, with his tolerance, and Sam is a redwood, so even though he doesn't drink as much, it can't be easy for him to get there either. Now, anyway. I bought his total drunkenness in Playthings, though.

I can't really imagine what it would take to get Dean stumbling and incoherent, with his tolerance

Yeah, which is why I dislike it in fic so much, unless the author is making a point about him being on a mind-destroying bender. The idea that your average night out at a bar gets Dean fucked up surprises me. Too drunk to drive? Absolutely. Too likely to pick a fight with the wrong guy and other dubious life choices? Without a doubt. But not the mashed slurred speech where he admits everything he's been hiding all this time--not unless he got drunk precisely because of that...and even then!

He drank his way through the first year back from Hell, and there was obviously no ethanol-enhanced caring and sharing, besides the comfort of the beer bottle in their hands, as far as I can tell. I don't see a canon implication of him being the same sort of drunk as Sam.

So now it's on my list with the vertigo.

Frankly I see Dean as more the get-increasingly-quiet-drink-until-he-passes-out type than a sloppy drunk. That's my impression of how high-functioning alcoholics do it. I'd imagine alcohol poisoning would rear its head before touchy-feely oversharing.

Speaking of the characters being drunk (I am so happy that they didn't use this ep to make the characters be stupid drunk, and that Dean went uncommented as being sober at the climax within the ep, although the other in-ep comments speak to a worrying state of being), I loved how glassy-eyed Dean was when he and Sam were liquoring it up in the brewery office. Just that perfect edge of red-rimmed and silly. "I miss these conversations". So good that I wondered if they didn't actually film that with Jensen downing one or two highballs.

I can't believe we have to wait three weeks!

So, it's been Bobby this whole time. Why didn't Bobby give Dean a sign in the brewery after pushing the sword? Why couldn't he signal him in the motel at the end? I'm curious about Bobby's limitations and the reasons behind them.

Just caught up on episodes.

Favorite credit after the last episode: MR. FIZZLES as Himself

I'm assuming Bobby not being able to push a planchette, while being able to hand Dean a sword is a plot point rather than an error. Hmm, maybe he needs to be near the flask. Which does not explain his being unable to give some other type of sign when Dean asks. But again, I suspect we will get an explanation of that and the explanation will advance the story.

I'm rewatching and Dean's muttered "turn it off, turnitoff" had me laughing again. And so not what sober Dean would do.

I'm trying to think that maybe Bobby can only manifest and influence when Dean is desperate for something. But Dean was desperate for Bobby to give a sign and nothing. And I can't remember what emotional state Dean was in when his beer disappeared, or what his beer disappearing would mean other than Bobby saying "stop drinking so much" (except Sam was drinking too, at that point).

I do recall Dean invited the conversation after Sam revealed he'd tried to Ouiji Bobby. In the motel room with Garth, he said to Sam, "we're going to talk about this" or something to that effect. And at the end, Sam said, "Okay, let's talk."

Also Dean wasn't drunk enough to see the Shojo, and Sam was unconscious and relied on Dean to explain the sword's movement. Then he tried to explain it as the Shojo mishandling it. Nice denial, boys.

I hate that we have to wait three weeks for them to be able to see Bobby. Hmph.

Guys, I skipped a little, but didn't Cas' wife Daphne say she got a message from God that she was supposed to find and help Cas?

And it's been a little while, but it's never been established, truly, truly established, that God is dead.

I don't really have a theory about where the story is going, but I don't think God is dead or gone or whatever.

Of course, it could be a red herring, because I suppose any number of supernatural baddies could tell a devout person they were God, and make them believe it, but I don't think so.

And as for Bobby -- perhaps he is a traditional ghost, or maybe so much of his psychic imprint is on the flask that he's connected to it, despite the cremation. I mean, Bobby didn't leave the hotel room until Dean came back for the flask. And from the preview, we know he travels with the boys. And Dean takes that flask everywhere.

So why didn't he communicate with Sam? Perhaps he's under a geas, or perhaps...a mission? From God? Or he WAS in purgatory for a while...or, oooh, Crowley is controlling him? That would be EVIL.

I don't know. I can't wait to see.

(I do know that when we saw Bobby, I shouted "IDGITS!" at the same time Dan screamed "BALLS!" And we both were right!)