Some random thoughts:

deathbycoldopen:

• Dean and Claire mini golfing made me think of a stepfather trying to bond with his new stepdaughter.  In fact, it made me think of that one episode of Buffy where Joyce starts dating that abusive robot dude and they all go mini golfing to try to get Buffy to bond with him.  Which also reminds me what neven-ebrez mentioned in her tags about the “tell me she’s going to be okay” being a reference to the btvs episode “Lie to Me” (incidentally in the same season as “Ted,” and which is now just making me want to meta extensively on btvs vs spn so I’ll save that for a later date)
• Last episode Dean was confronted with his subconscious reminding him how hard it’s been for the people who love him to watch him suffer under the Mark; this ep he touted a philosophy of going it alone, not being tied down by others.  It’s quite the change, though, from the lesson he took from the Werther Box that he and Sam are stronger as a unit, and I can’t help but think that the part of him that wants the Mark to take over is chafing a little at their protectiveness.
• We all talked a lot last week about how Dean seems to be doing surprisingly well, but after this week I’m thinking it’s more complicated than that.  Dean is not doing well as far as the Mark goes; but where he is doing well is his self esteem.  He knows that people love him, and that he could have a happy ending if he can just get past all this crap- a far cry from where he was not even a year ago.  But that doesn’t mean that the Mark isn’t weighing heavily on Dean and affecting his actions
• The way that Sam treated Claire reminded me of how he treated “Adam” all the way back in season 4- teaching her how to live the life and do illegal shit.  Of course, the difference was that in Jump the Shark, Dean tried to dissuade Adam from being a part of their fucked up family, whereas in 10×20, he did what he could to help Claire out aside from his advice to Cas.
• Cas is clearly at loose ends, and has been since Hannah left her vessel in 10×07.  He’s since then drifted between missions.  His attempt to make amends to Claire and Amelia has done some good, but it also seems like it might be over- not forever, because not all goodbyes are forever, but this ep certainly had a degree of finality to it.  He’s done what he can for Claire for now, and now he needs to find another mission, or at least another family (*coughs loudly*)
• Speaking of which, that finality not only left Cas at loose ends again, but it opened the door to allow him to move forward.  He’s spent so much of his tenure on this show trying to make amends for the things that he’s done, and now he’s almost done doing the best that he can.  He’s helped mend heaven, he’s helped those who he’s hurt, and he’s said goodbye for now to his old mistakes.  He’s free to live his life as he wants now, and all that’s left is for him to figure out what that is.
• Amelia and Jimmy were actual canonical soulmates.  My heart hurts.
• Dean and Claire are still paralleled, this time even by Dean himself when he turns into a ceiling projector and says that Claire might be better off on her own, and later by them playing mini golf in with the exact same level of childishness and snark.  Of course, we have another situation like Cole in 10×07, where Claire hasn’t yet crossed the line between her and the darkness that’s out there in the world, and Dean warns her against it.  But it seems to me that Dean’s advice is short-sighted, and doesn’t take into account that Claire has already been possessed by an angel, had her family torn apart, bounced between foster homes, and killed the angel who took her mother.  She’s already seen that darkness, and yet she’s able to get in that cab and move toward the future.  Just because she carries that baggage doesn’t mean she can’t move forward, and that’s a lesson that both Sam and Dean need to learn and relearn and relearn again.
• Bonus points for the “bring your daughter to work day” for being so ambivalent in its possible interpretations.  Did the cop think Claire was Dean’s daughter? Cas’? Or even both of theirs?  Also bonus points for Actual Married Couple Dean and Cas