I knew Robbie would make some big revelation through the meta episode, but the revelation wasn’t for the audience, it was for Dean. I love that he used the Ben Edlund episode in which the subtext indicated that there was an actual sexual relationship between Dean and fallen Castiel in the future, because there is definitely S-E-X in Robbie’s subtext. Robbie is by far not the only writer to purposefully insert Destiel subtext, but his subtext isn’t just romantic, it is erotic. So it’s fitting that he chose The End as the plot element in the episode.
In The End, Dean has his phone call with Castiel, which from his point of view ended with Castiel curtly saying ‘Yes’.
The phone conversation was Dean reminding Castiel that he was human, and Castiel having little patience for Dean being human. Dean didn’t know what Castiel said after he hung up, and he certainly never knew that Castiel waited for him all night. The next heard from Castiel, after having come in contact with this very human version of the angel in the future, was when Castiel pulled him away from Zechariah. But Dean did not know that he waited for Dean. Dean did not know that during this time, he was Castiel’s only preoccupation.
So why is this important? Because from Dean’s point of view, Castiel is always leaving. Just like he walked out of his door at the bunker. He can never keep Castiel.
But Dean’s point of view has always been wrong, because we know that most of the times that Castiel has physically vanished from Dean’s presence, he has still had his angel radio tuned into Dean. There’s an incongruence in their experience in that Dean feels abandoned while Castiel, from his point of view, never leaves Dean. It is a revelation for Dean that what Castiel is doing is not leaving him again, leaving like he always does, but that the angel is waiting for him. Castiel is waiting for him like he alwayes does, and all Dean needs to do is to reach out and he will be gripped tight.
How dare you bring this back to my dash, how very dare you.
I’ve been so focused on the way that this song took an arguably platonic moment and retroactively showed it to the show’s audience through a romantic lens with the lyrics “I’ll wait for you” that it never occurred to me that Dean “everybody leaves” Winchester was also getting this perspective.
Never thought I could love this episode more, and yet here we are :’)
I can’t help but wonder if Dean’s fear of Cas not wanting to stick around is actually worse now. Because he learned in Fan Fiction that Cas had waited for him. He learned in The Prisoner that Cas planned to stand by him forever.
But then Dean beat the hell out of him, and killed Death, and didn’t kill Amara, and Cas was angry with him.
And then Cas said yes to Lucifer. In Dean’s mind, saying yes to Lucifer is surely tantamount to leaving. And he still doesn’t know why Cas did it.
It occurs to me that from Dean’s perspective, it likely looks like Cas has finally given up on him.
It also goes some way into explaining why Dean so adamantly denied the possibility that Castiel could have made the choice out of his own volition (while fearing in his heart of hearts that he might have) – because for Dean to accept that Castiel made the choice for himself means to accept some other uncomfortable truths, as well.
It’s not just that Castiel seems to have given up on him, but that it’s because Dean failed to take care of him – Dean failed to take care of someone that he had made his responsibility, someone that he had chosen to protect (even from himself) – and in Dean Winchester’s world there can be no greater failure.
Tumblr backup 