tebtosca

IDK, but what I hope is that they will use their reworking of the Cain story to bring together the holy-fuck-this-is-the-real-shit darkness of the first half of the season with the more gizmoish Mark story. The Mark seems to mostly resonate with killer!Dean/killer!Cain, and Dean's self-identification as a killing instrument IS an important aspect of his personal darkness, but the way in which Cain as brother is both a foil to Dean (Dean chose better at the apocalyptic crisis, did not preempt Sam's free will, and so Sam was ultimately able to save Sam) and a mirror to him (because I do see a relationship between Cain's fratricidal perversion of saving/love and Dean's violation of Sam and overriding of his autonomy in the Gadreel thing) not only makes the story a lot more interesting and confronts stuff Dean needs to change, it also works as structural glue to keep the relationship repair and the mytharc connected and to keep the two halves of the season together as more than Mostly Angel Stuff vs Mostly Demon Stuff.