Okay, so this is really irritating me? 

All I keep hearing is stuff about how this is a “whole cycle again with Cas”, and “why is it that “sam and dean are suddenly co-dependent on each other again?”

First of all, yes yes yes yes yes. As much as it breaks my heart (Cas’s confusion and inability to control himself) this season has been wonderful and this episode was perfect. I love what they’re doing with Cas and the fact there’s actually this mystery surrounding him, something for his fans to look forward too. I love seeing that even those who have power over him see him as someone who has caused changed. I love seeing that the boys are working together to get to the route of the problem for him.

Of course I hate how he’s being controlled; that everything he’s fought so hard for is being snatched away again, but isn’t that kind of the point now? To see the two people he saved, come back together to save him? Cas literally, physically and emotionally reunited the brothers:

1. Season 4, when Cas brought Dean back from Hell. 
2. Season 5, where Cas brought Sam back from Hell. 
3. Season 7, where Cas returned Dean’s brother to him, mentally. 
4. Season 8, where he kindly asked them both to ‘stow their crap’ because not only was something bigger going on, he got what they ‘needed’ - he got things most important to them that would help them. He got Sam and Dean each other.

Secondly, Sam abandoning Amelia where Dean abandon’s Benny? It was obvious this was going to happen and to be completely honest, people who say that it’s the end of these two characters are obviously clutching at loose ends to find something to criticise. Benny and Amelia are so primary to this season that it would be like the writers taking fifty steps back from the wonderful progression they’ve made to remove them completely. This also works as a beautiful parallel: Sam and Dean both leaving important people for each other. This season all we’ve been seeing is parallels (though the fandom has simply decided to highlight the ones that show deancas and their homoeroticism) so there will definitely be something bigger coming our way.

Finally, Dean and Sam’s codependency is not the show taking fifty steps back either. You know the hunters of the Earth? The demons of Hell? The angels left in Heaven? The monsters in Purgatory? They’re afraid of the Winchester brothers (and of course, Cas). They’re afraid of these two forces, that while deadly enough on their own, are such a strong pair together it’s like the wrath of all archangels combined in these two simple humans.

This whole show, the whole point of it, was that no matter who comes and goes and no matter how important other characters are, it’s about the Winchester brothers loyalty to each other and how they would die for each other. How they would drop everything they wanted, lose everything they love, suffer in hell and abandon their perfect heaven’s for each other.

It’s about how one boy from the age of four became a father, and how one boy from six months became a son. How they created this dynamic where they needed to rebel and fight to prove to each other that yes, they can live without each other.

The point: Sam and Dean don’t want to

Can I please also add: they didn’t necessarily choose each other? They chose their morals and what they’d learned their whole lives. They followed their minds and their beliefs and what they knew to be right. God, they don’t even heavily imply that that Sam and Dean stayed for each other - we as a fandom and as followers of their relationship simply assume this because it’s believable. 

And I think because of the excitement of this new storyline and falling in love with so many other characters, people have forgotten this primary aspect. And I’d just like to take a moment to remind you that when you guys watched the first three seasons, you fell in love with their relationship too. Yes, the writers fucked up in season 6 a little but I trust them completely right now. 

Thank you, that’s all.

….oh, and unpopular opinion.