Do you think they could still bring a different love interest to Dean, if the series does get another confirmed season? I mean, maybe they could develop their relationship in the second half of s10 and first half of s11, idk. Or even a random, not-so-developed one for his endgame? Or worse: do you think they could bring back Lisa, having Dean “retire” and try to live a normal, hunting-free life for his endgame?

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Here’s my problem with this idea: it’s too little too late.

The “Dean’s getting a love interest” foreshadowing has been building for too long. The season nine opener asked, “Who do you love?” right there in the Road So Far music, and they’ve been building on that theme ever since.

The use of negative space (both physically and narratively), the intentional differentiation between “love and…love,” the monster/human relationships that were showcased, all of that was leading somewhere. And I held my breath up until Meta Fiction, because I knew that they’d been showing us empty places in Dean’s life because they were eventually going to fill those spaces.

And I knew, narratively speaking, that if Dean’s endgame was a badass chick we hadn’t met yet, we’d get an initial appearance in the back half of season nine. She’d appear for an episode and then go off on her own until Dean was in a place to appreciate her, because we needed SOMEONE in our minds to answer the question that the show was asking Dean.

And when that girl never appeared, I breathed a deep sigh of relief. Meta Fiction was where I finally let myself stop expecting her to pop up. If we were all sitting around waiting on Dean’s love interest, the suspense as to who it would be ended the second Metatron revealed Castiel’s true weakness.

In an episode where we were specifically told to look at the subtext, there was a very deliberate pause between “He’s in love” and “with humanity.” And that answered my question.

The show has put the question to Dean, and to the viewer, about who Dean loves. And they have used parallels, negative space, set design, sound cues, and actual words to tell us one really cohesive message, which is that Cas loves Dean.

Even without getting into the Colette parallels that are likely going to inform the back half of season ten and the resolution of the Mark of Cain storyline, the message is clear. “Hey, you know this angel who is learning to be human? He’s in love with Dean Winchester.”

I recently got an ask wondering why things are so much clearer from Castiel’s end than Dean’s, and I think this is the answer. Castiel is a supporting character. We have to know his intentions in advance, we have to be mindful of the narrative questions in advance, we had to answer “Who loves you?” before Dean can answer “Who do you love?”

Because Dean is a main character, and his motivations and decisions are the driving force of the show. We always know the cute boy is interested in the main character before the main character realizes it. In every show, someone in the will-they-or-won’t they couple is pining more obviously than the other, and it’s usually the one who isn’t the main character.

So we were asked a question and given a possible answer. “Who does Dean love? I don’t even think Dean knows yet, but here’s a possible answer given that this idiot is completely head over heels for him.”

Here’s the thing, though. In a lot of shows, they like to set up the main character for a love interest and then weed down from several possibilities. They explore three or four possible love interests because that’s what makes people talk around the water cooler. Yes, the main character had a lovely moment in the rain with that person, but remember the accidental coffee date with so-and-so? CLEARLY they’re more compatible with so-and-so than they are with what’s-their-face.

But Supernatural is not doing that. Not only have they given us a pretty definitive answer as to who loves Dean, they’ve only given us the one answer.

I mean, sure, there’s always a chance that they’ll go full How I Met Your Mother and be like, “Eh, Lisa’s good enough. Doesn’t matter where we’ve gone since then, people like Lisa.” But I doubt that very highly for one specific reason.

They know they did bad by Lisa to begin with. The rigamarole of bringing back her memories and having her choose Dean all over again would be time-consuming, plus they already know they fucked that up consent-wise.

It is very apparent to many meta writers that the showrunners and writers sat down before season ten and actually took into account the fandom complaints about the way they treat women. This season has been such a drastic turn-around from the last nine seasons. Every episode thus far has passed the Bechdel Test, Fan Fiction was a thoughtful and beautiful contrast to the way they portrayed fans in The Real Ghostbusters, and they straight up axed a dude to further Claire’s story.

I’m not saying they’re doing perfectly, I’m saying it’s very apparent that they are attempting to be mindful of the fanbase they have as opposed to the one they thought they had.

And the fanbase they already have would not stand for uprooting Lisa’s life a second time. I love Lisa passionately. Every time I watch Exile on Main Street I think, “God, Dean does not deserve her.” She handled his hunting better than anyone could have expected, she communicated in a non-accusatory tone about how to integrate her civilian life with his hunter life, she basically kicked all kinds of relationship ass and did exactly the right thing for her and Ben.

And she tried really hard to do right by Dean, too. And she didn’t try to change him. I could write a treatise called “How to Have a Healthy Relationship: The Lisa Braden Approach” and it would probably exceed 20K words. She was amazing and good for him and he never once came close to deserving her.

Putting her through that again would be impossible because of the kind of character she became. If they restored her memories, she would do the smart thing and put Ben first and say, “I cannot believe you mind-wiped me without my consent, do you realize how fucked up that is?” She’d take Ben and run across the country, change her phone number and name, and kick the Winchester dust from her shoes without a second thought.

All that to say: They’ve burned every bridge for every possible past love interest to come into play. And they aren’t introducing any at this juncture. I mean, there was Ann-Marie, but she showed herself to be too good for Dean, too. She isn’t the kind of person who comes back to someone who calls her a skank just because he apologizes and says he wasn’t himself.

So where does that leave us? With a question needing to be answered, and only one person being put forward by the show itself as a possible answer to that question.

Cas is Dean’s endgame. Full stop.