#bobby stuff

grown man: maybe we give him a back rub to cheer him up!!!!

Season 1 Bobby is a whole entire conversation yo. like whole conversation. For sure. someone had presented the whole Bobby and Chim, I think it was @deluweil as an Older sibling thing when Bobby snaps like that. and like that made a lot of sense to me, so like that’s how I read S1 Bobby now as far as Chimney is concerned. I never had siblings so I like couldn’t make that connection on my own, but when they presented it that way, it was just so good.

At first Bobby fares okay, listening to Dean's rousing (fake) pep talk and feeling hopeful:

(In reality, Dean is devastated at finding out his role as a vessel, and he's still simmering over Sam's "Aw shucks I fucked up" attitude.)

But anyway BOBBY!

❤️❤️❤️❤️ Dean gave this speech for Bobby's benefit, and he's trying soo hard to cheer him up, even well into the next episode.

And it works! At first, Bobby AND Sam are so cheered up by the appearance of DEAN BOUNCING BACK, especially Sam. (In the very next scene, reality hits, and Sam realizes that Dean hasn't bounced back.)

Then, in the very next episode, it's Dean's parent figure that isn't bouncing back.

There's a fun parallel here: As Sam hopes/expects Dean to bounce back, Dean expects Bobby to bounce back.

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Then... we PIVOT back to the theme of Cas's newly minted protectorship role:

And Cas calls Sam's phone, then comes marching in. And ha--Dean is being a little weird about the cellphone here. Why?

Why?

CAS: "I won't be able to simply-- (fly to your side)"

And perhaps Dean is feeling a little anxious about that.

Since learning he's the Michael sword, perhaps he's feeling the anxiety in a new way: more personal, more vulnerable.

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Anyway, Cas's protectorship duties have instantly expanded to include Bobby. Just as Mary instantly identifies Cas as the one to put too much on, Bobby does the same.

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Bobby is devastated, and as Dean listens, Dean is starting to feel even more afraid.

Because Cas can't assuage this new feeling of vulnerability, even though Dean may desperately want him to.

Cas has been more or less "invincible " until recently, but in the last few days, he's died and come back, and now Cas can't even fly to him whenever.

AND apparently, to make matters even scarier, Cas’s handcuffed with regards to powers.

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DEAN: Wow. Uhm uhm awkward uh. I'll lighten the mood:

Anyway, what I like about these things with Bobby and Mary in particular...

It's like when Dean velcroed himself to Cas; they sense the dynamic and, by proxy, benefit from it. Dean's parents* are instantly awarded the privilege of Cas's strength and protectorship.

Dean gets a kind of spousal support from Cas, even to the point of asking Cas to fix things he can't fix or take on what Dean can't take.

The crime you did will be done to you, and Bobby shooting his dad.

And getting the same thing (eventually) done to you.

Like cosmic consequences.

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Something about God being obsessed with symmetry, not balance.

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I would say that I hope it's something Bobby will come to regret, but Bobby is shown to be actively suicidal (he keeps a bullet in his desk drawer, and he shows it off to his boys yikes!) and also... Bobby is very adept at compartmentalization.

When things go bad, Bobby tends to bury them very deep, almost like he prefers a clean compound fracture to a scar. To me, his tendency can veer almost like a perfectionistic reaction to life's disappointments. (I think Dean learns some of these tendencies from him, too.)

EDIT: I also think that, most charitably, it can be read as something of a stand-in for a hunters' funeral, since they had no remains. ToT

the truck of dads