7x18 reaction
I loved the brother moments something fierce. *_* I wanted to watch them all over again without waiting for the rest of the episode. Just 'cause. Everything else felt like filler keeping me from having a smorgasbord episode of nothing but brotherly goodness. Boo. But also \o/. And ♥.
Dean calling to check in on Cas made me very happy. (The call itself seems like a pretty clear answer to the hubbub last week on whether or not Dean includes Cas in his family of "we" when he said, "All of our friends are dead." He does. ♥)
Ghost!Bobby is now confirmed, so now we can move past the mystery and more deeply into character. Despite wanting just once for the show to surprise me and reveal a supernatural mystery to simply be human (Sam being soulless, then seeing Lucifer instead of simply being deeply traumatized from the experience itself; Dean's ghost!Bobby being the answer instead of Dean's shock and grief)... I am amazingly okay with this development, given that they are balancing it between the mystery and Dean's issues. Characterization, plus brother moments and surrogate father angst! \o/ More, please. I will very gladly eat crow if they keep that up.
ETA: I'd be interested to see if Sam has seen Bobby before but didn't trust it due to the hallucinations. I also like the thought of ghost!Bobby hunting down amnesiac!Cas for Dean; how else could a ghost!Bobby know the whereabouts of Cas when human!Bobby didn't? (I hope they don't handwave that, because I like my fanwank.)
I don't mind Garth, but given that he's in this goofy sidekick/comic relief role that I've rarely had any patience for no matter what the show or film or how talented the actor, I'd rather see less of him than more. He doesn't add anything to the show that I would miss if he wasn't there to add it, and Comic Relief Sidekick (like Becky or the Ghostfacers) is not the kind of recurring character (like Henricksen, Ellen, Rufus or even Gordon) that resonates emotionally with me. Hopefully, he won't outlive his entertainment value like wife!Becky. (It's so weird to think of how Dean was originally written in a similarly exaggerated comical way, though more of the macho toughness than the goofiness. Jensen turning Dean into a three-dimensional human being is something I'm forever grateful for.)
Oh, but that was a creepy as hell monster, although I kept thinking of shojo magazines instead of monsters. (This is what actually pops up when you google "shojo." Oh, show. But some of that stuff would have been equally creepy.)
How did I manage to like this episode so much when the PIPs and Garth felt so superfluous to what I really wanted to watch? Lowered expectations? It wasn't "Monster Movie" on the scale of comedy episodes, but it was more than that godawful "Swap Meat." And I can't say enough about how I loved the brother moments. (I think my problem last week was having impossibly high expectations, so I was left disappointed by the pacing and some of the plot twists.)
p.s. I've been thinking I was okay with Bobby's death, given what a send-off it was (and how bringing him back as a ghost would threaten to cheapen it). I had honestly let him go (which I hadn't even begun to be able to do with Cas in 7x02) partly because his send-off was so heartfelt and took its time. But seeing him again made me so happy. When his eyes softened as Dean entered the room, I felt it all over again like a shot in the heart. Team Free Will! ♥♥♥♥ Confession? I have always sort of wanted Bobby to outlive the boys because I want someone in this crapsack world to know that they've passed away, whenever they finally do, and to remember and care about the men they were. I know Cas will, always. I want someone in heaven, someone in hell (I vote for Meg), and someone on earth to remember. I guess I want their memory somewhat grounded and for their legacy to matter in someone's personal memories when it's all said and done. Kind of like Colt's legacy, but more intimate. Here's hoping.
♥
Yes, please. Every bit of that, and this, too:
♥
What's wrong with me? Okay, that's enough hearts for one post. Sorry, sorry... I need sleep, maybe.