I can't stop this feeling

saltgunandsparks:

underpromiseoverdeliver:

“William Anthony Harvelle”

Okay, let me just

go through with what I love about this moment piece by piece

1) He’s offering tacit support of her decision to hunt. Even more than hanging up on Ellen, because that was a hurried frantic moment and this is thought-out and deliberate: this is Dean saying if you’re sure that this is what you want to do, I’ll back you up.

2) He’s still protective of her, because he’s Dean and that’s how he cares about people, but his instincts have shifted from “keep her safe” to “make sure she’s prepared to protect herself,” which has so much tied up in it - it acknowledges she needs practice, which is true, but that’s still offering respect for her abilities and her autonomy and, basically, RESPECT. It’s building.

3) She turns it down, because - that respect, that support, it’s nice and all, but this doesn’t actually have anything to do with him. This is about her, it’s her hunt and her family and her reasons for being there, and she’s gonna stick to that. Lay claim to that.

4) Dean respects that instantly. Instantly and completely. He just - understands, he sympathizes, and immediately concedes to her priorities. She’s here because this is what she has left of her father, and even though he doesn’t know the details of that yet, he recognizes something vital and backs off without a second thought.

5) “My mistake.” There’s a lot in that line: “Well, never mind then,” “I’m sorry for belittling your father’s knife,” but also, I think, “There’s a lot I don’t know about you, you’re right. Sorry for forgetting.”

6) WHAT IT TELLS US ABOUT JO. Because this, this glimpse of a knife that she handles so well and these three letters and the look she gives him - those tell us that this is her world and she’s claiming a place in it, that unlike just about every hunter we’ve seen she’s not doing this for vengeance or obligation or to prove a point but because it’s a part of her and always has been, because it’s the life she’s always seen around her - how could she not grow into it? She’s already a hunter. She always was. Sam was a clueless kid, Dean was a tagalong protector, but Jo’s been a hunter since she could toddle around and yell “HAH!” as she punched at shadows.

OKAY, I THINK THAT’S THE LIST. I think that’s most of it.

This, all these words, all of this, right here, oh my god.