#a complete construct

the El Sol sign in the cold open. the flirty waitress who dean doesn’t have to commit to flirting back with. the “texas impalas” sign in the bar. the fact that the bar is called “Swayze’s”. LEE??? there’s obviously speculation behind that one, and as appealing as that does sound, it just doesn’t quite fit right -it’s too convenient. dean hasn’t seen him in fifteen years, why should he suddenly crop back up with a country-themed karaoke bar? when dean’s working a case alone? when he’s ‘coincidentally’ out of reach of the bunker, specifically because the first thing he’s asked to do upon entry of lee’s bar is put his phone in a basket. cas calls over and over about sam’s worsening condition, and dean can’t be reached - he’s too busy witnessing his own ideal future displayed out in front of him, eerily similar to the one michael traps him in in season 14. 

Here we have a man from dean’s past, a real man’s man who’s successfully left the life of hunting (”Aw, come on, who’s gonna kill the bad guys?” “Somebody else”) and now honestly and unapolagetically owns a country karaoke bar. this is exactly how dean wants to see himself. but it’s also this fucked up ‘lesson’ about how you can never really leave, because it’s supposed to be this huge miracle that lee successfully left hunting, something that’s too good to be true, and of course, it is. dean spends asking half the episode asking lee if he regrets leaving the life, and lee enthusiastically tells him how wonderful it is, only to end up being the villain of the week and then dying at dean’s own hand. the whole thing just reeks of a divine-intervention setup - sort of like 5x04 or the bar in michael!dean’s head, and the hard truth is that lee had probably been long dead by the time this all happened.