(x)
This is sort of, tbh, the opening paragraph of my watching notes in substance, except I thought of it right now based on the promo scene so congrats, you get it a day early.
It seems like we may get Dean and AUBobby paired off, and alone, and if not, then at the very least they get separated enough to have a one on one conversation.
Now we have the new promo video, I’m thinking a suspicion about AUBobby and Dean is getting stronger, that they’re going to be in conflict, and of course AUBobby has picked up that hat which is either literally Michael’s and he is Michael, or is the same style down to colour and design as Michael’s and he’s a Michael mirror, and either way it sucks, right?
Here’s something to consider, with Jim Beaver being back every year and Bobby’s face remaining a part of the ongoing SPN story regularly enough that I think this takes some serious concentration to maintain when dealing with the character dynamics:
Until 11x16, Dean did not see Bobby’s face once, not even to communicate with a false Bobby. In 11x16, Dean and season4!Bobby didn’t exchange a word and had such a fleeting meeting that both of them tried to laugh it off as a dream to their Sam or Rufus. In 12x23 it was the first time Dean had come face to face with a Bobby of any sort, and it’s not our Bobby.
In the intervening time from Bobby’s funeral, Sam met the real Bobby in 8x19 and saved him from Hell, hallucinated Bobby in 9x01, and talked to the real Bobby in 10x17. Post-death, for all of Carver-era, Bobby and Sam were the only ones to have a relationship, even though in 9x01 we did have an imaginary Dean with the imaginary Bobby.
Cas, Jack and Mary are the only characters to currently have any one-on-one scenes with AUBobby, and Cas’s we didn’t see on screen except for their meeting. The stuff we have seen with AUBobby and Dean has been extremely removed and in the middle of conflict, or AUBobby toasting them at the end of 12x22. In 12x23 Sam was the one giving the apocalypse peeps the talk about the AU they were now in while Dean was out, of course foreshadowing his stronger leadership role to them while Dean was Michaeled, and of course Sam has the month of searching for Michael where AUBobby would be a somewhat equal, as the apocalypse leader of these peeps, a role Sam has stepped into in their world for the most part.
This isn’t me coming to any particular point about not trusting AUBobby or thinking he’s evil or casting judgements on him (UNLESS HE’S MICHAEL but that’s an unrelated meta point I just wanted to get in in case I am right :P) but specifically to look at Dean’s POV of AUBobby representing not only the AU peeps who have intruded in his life and filled his home and taken Sam on as their chief, but also specifically for him, has the face of the fallen father figure, and Dean has spent almost no time with AUBobby and has yet to have a significant character moment with him.
Mary has got really cosy with him because their dynamic works in reverse - he thinks he knows HER better than she knows him because he had a thing for Mary Campbell. For the guys, of course they knew Bobby and he’s the impostor with the temptingly kind fatherly face associated with all the nice stuff he can impart to Jack in 14x01, because they have no weird pre-existing relationship, so AUBobby absolutely has the capacity to BE like Bobby once was. But he’s NOT to them, and we as the audience particularly suffer with his friendly face. I know I was HORRIFIED when I saw Crimson Peak because I knew Bobby too well to be impartial about Jim Beaver’s fate, you know? :P After 11x16 I was interested in how many people were surprised when I pushed this line that it was the first and only time Dean had seen Bobby since his death, because his memory and overall presence blanketing the show creates a false sense of Bobby comfort, and I suspect that’s exactly what this episode is going to yank back.
So I’m just sounding out the situation as I see it and explaining some of the facts of these dynamics to hold in our minds as we watch, perhaps because it will really help with whatever is to come if we are not expecting things to be as they should, but as they are.