#changed behaviour

I see a lot of people mad at Dean. Honestly if you are going to go through the entire series and look at each interaction between Dean and Cass with an honest eye and an understanding of canon, then Dean snapping and pushing Cass away is not that surprising. Cass actually leaving is, because none of the information he realized before he left was new information, and he’s not gone off in a huff before.

I don’t know how they are gonna resolve that, but I am 99% sure it’ll be some variation of Dean reaching out because he wants Cass’ help to fix something wrong with Sam. (I do not refer to this show as the “My Emotional Support Narrative Spiral” for no reason.)

Here, in case you missed it, are the straws the broke Dean’s camel’s back. (and it seems like  there are a lot of people who missed these important plot points)

Sam had to kill the closest thing he had to a best friend outside of Dean, and to some extent Cass, himself, (I admit that I ship samwena, and I think sastiel is a much healthier concept than destiel, but I am talking about canon here, not something I write and read fanfiction about for entertainment on the side. In canon Sam and Rowena are friends and probably, by now, feeling pretty “best friend” or as close as either of them can get to it. Rowena is well written and has an internal life and motivations of her own, remember? Sam was probably as close to a best friend as she felt comfortable letting herself have.)

Because of this Sam is hurting, he is heartbroken, he had promised himself and her that they would change their fate. He did not want to be the person who killed her. He’s come to care for and respect her. 

This is not the same relationship they had leading up to him pulling that trigger in Funeralia. This was the relationship that built on the shock of that moment. When he realised he did not want to be what kills her as the bullet left the chamber, and his relief when she stopped it. 

This was the relationship that grew when she stopped that bullet and realised he could kill her if it came down to it, but he did not want to, and her knowledge that fate cannot be changed, so when he did kill her, her death would have to mean something.

So Cass interrupts Bel, the spell stops, and the only alternative (insert poorly written plot monkey and spn’s standard lazy fridging) is Sam killing Rowena.

Ok, so in that moment here’s what happens:

Cass could have incapacitated Bel and blown the horn himself. (interesting plot possibility, Cass being the king of Hell briefly, because you know he’d go all in on fixing that shit so it would have been the better choice than letting Bel continue)

Cass could have fled topside and let Dean know what was happening, reporting back. Cass can’t be expected to anticipate and react well to every contingency.  Dean knows this. One of Dean’s skills is that he is a freaking genius at maneuvering around curve balls. Shit happens, Dean knows this and is a master at adjusting on the fly. The correct thing to do would have been to let Dean know what was happening and adjust as a team. Cass failed to trust Dean’s proven skill, again.

Dean is not “Only mad cause Cass should have told him about Jack and now Mary is dead” (in the reductive language I’ve seen people using to make it seem like Mary’s death was nothing compared to Cass being sad) Dean is Mad because:

- all of the things Cass fucked up and never fixed or made better or amends for up until the point where his refusal to learn from his mistakes and adjust his course of actions accordingly killed Mary. Cass’ path is continually not communicating with the Winchesters when he should about things he should. That is basically his entire arc. “Bad thing happens, Cass tries to fix it, on his own, without a solid plan, thing gets worse, rinse and repeat”

-Sam, his little brother, is devastated and heartbroken because he had to kill his friend. His little brother who has fought his entire life to overcome an evil that was forced into his system, HAD TO KILL HIS FRIEND. His little brother who has been his to protect and take care of his entire life, is now sitting in his room crying and hurting because of a preventable tragedy. Because of a decision that Cass made.

-Cass NUKED Jack’s body. Now that the immediate threat of the ghosts is over, don’t you think the next order of business was going to be to try and get Jack back into his... oh wait, Cass charbroiled their son’s body so now they can’t even try to fix that, Plus Rowena is gone, and she was probably needed to help with that. Cass just made sure Jack stays dead. (In Dean’s thinking right now. Please note, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of either Rowena or Jack)

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Now I am not saying Dean is the innocent victim here, He could have used his words better, but honestly, he never really has, so this is not a surprise.

And I don’t know if Sam will be “Okay with Cass.” or “Mad that Dean made him leave.” I think Sam would rub along with Cass still if he were there, because he’s Sam. But I would wonder if Sam, internally, doesn’t start thinking about the things in his life that got fucked and were Cass’s doing, and how he lost someone he shared a unique bond with because of Cass’ poor decision making skills.

Also I think Sam has a long history of championing people making their own choices and if Cass felt leaving was the thing to do, Sam, above everyone else on this show, will be the first to say “If that’s your choice, it’s your choice.”

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I know you probably have all seen that meme/quote that makes the rounds occasionally “The best apology is changed behaviour”

Sam practices this. When he does wrong or makes a mistake he makes a conscious effort to change his behaviour, and he’s usually pretty good at it. Sam is also the voice of reason when he realises things are going in circles or stuck in a rut he speaks out and says “We can’t go on like this.” He has grown as a person and become a better man than he thought he would because of it. (Although whether or not he realises that is up for debate, I think he still beats himself up too much)

Rowena’s entire arc was this. She came to realise she’d made choices that had destroyed her son and her relationship with him and made a conscious and concerted effort to do and be better. EVEN AFTER SHE CAME TO UNDERSTAND SHE WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO GET FERGUS BACK, she still acknowledged her failing and made changes to her life.

Dean has, with much conscious effort done this to an extent, too. When the penny finally drops and he understands he did wrong, he does try and change his behaviour. He is not as good at it as Sam, but he tries and sometimes succeeds. It just takes him longer to accept that he should be changing behaviour.

Cass apologises and then turns around and does the exact same thing over and over again, sometimes on a small scale, sometimes on a grand scale.