Okay, has Dean been that annoying this whole time like he was when he was arrested and when he was at the station?
Dean's superior attitude wasn't that much fun to watch because you just knew that Dean was going to be fine and come out on top so you just had to wait for what you knew was coming i.e the crooked cops getting their assess kicked by Dean. Dean reminded me too much of how he was in episode 9.22 (also written by Andrew Dabb) i.e. the whole dictator thing and threatening angels during interrogations. I think that they were trying to showcase Dean's practical fighting skills when he took down a cop while sitting on a chair but I wasn't that impressed maybe because of Dean having the mark of Cain. I think that 2.07
The Usual Suspects was much better. Back then, Dean's cockiness was something fun to watch, he was even charming but not anymore, something has been lost. Get the mark of Cain off of Dean, let's have the real Dean back.
Watching Dean in the car getting arrested etc. it was like now I know how Jensen probably felt in season 9. It made me think: I just want the happy-go-lucky Dean back, please. Enough with this shit. It's not enjoyable to watch Dean being under the influence of the mark of Cain.
It's good that the Stynes were armed and prepared to face Dean. Dean doesn't seem to think ahead much with the mark of Cain on his arm. A character being suffocated with a plastic bag is horrifying to watch but the scene was unintentionally comical because I was reminded of a blowfish because of the lips.
The mark was influencing Dean's style of killing but it's interesting that even as a demon, Dean had given Lester a chance to back down. Before the mark, Dean had always avoided killing humans because that's not in the job description of a hunter but now Dean was acting like a hitman.
Styne: And we'll let you go, then what? You'll just mosey on down the road?
Dean: No. But I will be human, so maybe a few of you live. Maybe.
If Dean didn't have the mark, he would probably have let some of them live.
I liked how Dean acted in the operation room a lot better than how he was in the previous scenes. It was good to explicitly see that the mark does make Dean hulk out since he was able to get out of the restraints. Although it could have been interesting to see Dean flatlining and coming back as a demon.
When Cas told Sam,
"Home. Dean's coming home," it sounded like he was talking about the Bogeyman.
It looks like the more Dean kills, the worse he gets, it shuts down parts of Dean. Castiel told Sam that Dean killed everyone brutally so it seems that clean kills don't feed the mark the same way. However, Dean was not scary to me at the Bunker, he was just sort of stone-faced.
It seemed like the boy felt something when he looked at a framed family picture of Sam, Dean, and Bobby. He saw a ticket to freedom when Dean told that the whole Styne family was dead.
But Dean sounded very much like Cain when he told the boy,
"Oh, you are like them. There's bad in you. It's in your blood. Now, you can deny it, and you can run from it all you want, but that bad... will always win." Once Dean comes out of this from the other side, I think that he will regret killing the boy. Just because Dean felt that his bloodline is tainted doesn't mean that the boy was rotten to the core for being a Styne.
Why did Dean go the extra mile by pretending that he was going to let the boy live? At least when he had tried to act like he was going to shake hands with Gadreel in episode 9.22, it could be seen as a tactical move on Dean's part to get close enough to the angel to stab him. Maybe there was a brief moment of consideration before Dean decided to shoot the boy or maybe he wanted the boy to feel relief a moment before his death.
Killing the boy might have been part of the promise Dean made at Charlie's funeral,
"Oh, I'm gonna find whoever did this, and I'm gonna rip apart everything and everyone that they've ever loved---"
It was super weird to me that Dean was able to beat up an angel like he did. Even when Dean had been part demon, Cas had been able to restrain him.
I'm not sure why Dean considered killing Cas or why Cas didn't put up more of a fight. It's not like he should have tried to put his hand on Dean's face to kill him but he could have tried to incapacitate Dean. On the other hand, Cas probably felt that fighting back would have provoked Dean more. Even Castiel putting his hand on Dean's shoulder was too much for Dean.
I think it could have been more interesting if Dean had taken the angel blade to Cas but it only takes one stab to kill an angel with the blade so I understand why it didn't happen.
This episode will probably give a lot of Destiel feels to some fans. Castiel saying,
"And everyone you know, everyone you love -- they could be long dead. Everyone except me. I'm the one who will have to watch you murder the world, so if there's even a small chance that we can save you, I won't let you walk out of this room," is very true but I dunno, the ending made it only about Castiel and Dean. Sam was an afterthought in the entire situation. Episode 9.22 was also more about Cas and Dean's relationship.
I understand why Cas thinks that Dean would eventually become like Cain but I'm not 100% sure that that fatalistic thinking is correct. But of course when Sam would eventually pass away, Dean would have a much harder time to continue to try to resist the mark. Even as a human, he needs Sam by his side. Dean would have to try to fight against the mark for the rest of the eternity, he would not get the sweet relief of death ever and he and Sam would be separated forever. I hope that Dean will realize on his own that he wants to be with Sam. Or that Sam will truly get through to Dean and it results in Dean getting rid of the mark. The blood cure was disappointing because it was so mechanical, at no point had Dean wanted to come back to his family.