Ho Yay / Supernatural

"Cas, we've talked about this. Personal space?"

This page covers Ho Yay found in Supernatural. How did we manage to fit this all in one page?

---

Dean/Castiel (Destiel) (Season 4-8)

• In episode 4x01, Castiel's first episode, he already seems to have a thing for leaning way too close to Dean and staring into his eyes with a Held Gaze.
• The last five minutes of 4x02 see Castiel arrive at Bobby's and he and Dean share an intense conversation in the kitchen, in which Castiel continues his habit of invading Dean's personal space as Dean stares at him. Moreover, Dean wakes up on the couch and it's clear Sam didn't notice/wake up to see the angel in the kitchen, implying that the conversation happened inside Dean's dream.
• At the beginning of 4x3, Dean wakes up to Castiel sitting on the edge of his bed and Castiel asks a startled and uncomfortable Dean what he dreams about. After the traumatic events of the episode, Castiel appears beside Dean in the past to bring him back to the present, with a hand on the shoulder and a tender, sympathetic expression.
  • This episode also contains a moment where Dean and Cas share an intense conversation and then both look over at an empty bed. In context, this scene is about Dean realizing that Sam is not in his bed, but out of context, it's been used in so many Destiel edits that it has taken on a life of its own.
• Episode 4x7 sees Castiel's sympathy for Dean grow to the point that he confides his doubts about Heaven's righteousness to Dean. He also expresses sympathy and admiration for humanity in general and Dean in particular.
• Episode 4x10: Uriel delivers a threat to Dean. The explanation given for Castiel not being present?
  Uriel: Castiel? He has this weakness. He likes you.
• Episode 4x16: Castiel has been demoted because he's gotten too close to Dean and his superiors feel it will "impair his judgment". And it turns out they're correct. Castiel indeed goes on to investigate something he has been ordered not to, because Dean was hurt.
• Episode 4x18, Cas bends the rules almost to the point of breaking them entirely to help Dean, and by the 20th episode he's all set to disobey completely and tell Dean what the angels are really up to.
  • By this point at the latest, Dean has figured out that he can manipulate Castiel simply by threatening to end their friendship.
• In Episode 4x20, when Jimmy kisses Amelia, we get a Reaction Shot from Dean, and he looks really jealous. Nothing from Sam, of course, because why would Sam care? It's also notable that there is zero sexual tension and/or chemistry between Jimmy and Dean compared to the gobs of it present when Castiel is occupying Jimmy's body, even when Castiel essentially breaks up with Dean at the end.
• Episode 4x21, Dean and Castiel just stare at each other for nearly 20 seconds, this after Castiel has made Dean pledge his loyalty to the angels in a vow of submission that has shades of BDSM. The zoom-out shot of them afterwards is also reminiscent of the shots employed for especially romantic kissing scenes in many movies.
• Episode 4x22, Cas pins Dean to a wall and covers his mouth, leaning in particularly close in a gesture that looks similar to a Wall Pin of Love.
  • It's shown that Castiel does this out of frustration because Dean becomes disgusted with him and tells him, "We're through." Castiel reacts with visible distress. The other reason he loses control this way? Because Dean is willing to give himself up and say yes to Michael.
  • There's another shot in this episode, when Cas tells Chuck they are making things up as they go, Dean is in the background gazing at Cas with...pride.
• And there's Castiel's repeated assertions (5.02 and 5.18 in particular) that everything he has done, he did for Dean.
  Castiel: I killed two angels this week. My brothers. I'm hunted. I rebelled. And I did it, all of it, for you.
• Episode 5x03, "Free To Be You and Me". Castiel appears out of nowhere about a foot away from Dean so that when Dean turns around, their faces are really close together.
  • Dean also, quite pointlessly, informs Castiel that Bert and Ernie are gay before taking him off to get laid.
    • Earlier in the episode, when Cas first shows up and asks for Dean's help, Dean says, "So, what, I'm Thelma and you're Louise, and we're just gonna hold hands and sail off this cliff together?" Thelma and Louise, of course, kissed right before sailing off said cliff.
    • Not to mention the reason he takes Cas to a brothel is because he asked Cas what he wants to do (on his last night), and offers booze, women... Cas pauses and gives Dean several furtive glances as he speaks before awkwardly rubbing his neck, which gives the impression that his preferred answer is Dean and that he's embarrassed of having a crush on him.
• Episode 5x04, "The End" has a moment cut from the production script is a line from Future Castiel about his Undying Loyalty to Dean in a way that sounds reminiscent of them having become lovers:

  Future Castiel: But instead, we become this. The only thing I think we have left, Dean and me, is each other. [unadorned sincerity] If Dean says it’s time to go out in a blaze of glory, win or lose, so be it. I’m in. But, then... [smiles at Past!Dean] That’s just how I roll.

• Episode 5x08, "Changing Channels", has an interesting little moment. The host calls Cas a "pretty boy angel", and we get a Reaction Shot from Dean as if he's pondering it for himself.
• In 5x10, Dean calls Cas "huggy bear". Dean is The Nicknamer, but there's no discernible reason for choosing this particular nickname, seeing as Cas is on a sleuth mission at the moment. Sam's surprised Double Take in the background says it all.
  • "Huggy Bear" is a reference from the TV show "Starsky and Hutch." He was their confidential informant and good friend. There was quite a body of Starsky/Hutch fanfiction back in the day. The slash association with that show may be the subtext in using that nickname.
• Episode 5x13 is the episode where Anna dies in this episode. A small, unimportant fact, it might seem at first — until the reveal that according to TPTB, Anna was originally supposed to be Dean's endgame. As in final/long-term love interest. The Anna who appears in six episodes and gets killed off in the last. And the reason for the change? Misha Collins was originally slated for a few episodes as Castiel, to pull Dean out of Hell, before getting killed off, with Anna the one who'd be sticking around. But instead, Dean and Castiel had such chemistry, and the fans liked Cas so much better than Anna, that they switched the roles, killing off the no-longer-long-term-love-interest Anna, and keeping the fan-beloved Castiel instead (implicitly transferring her love interest elements onto him.
• 5x22 is the season's Darkest Hour. Sam and Dean are driving to Detroit with a now-human Castiel for one last Hail Mary before Michael and Lucifer duke it out and burn the entire planet. During this grim time, Dean feels necessary to point out the following:
  Dean: (looks at Castiel sleeping in the back seat) Aw. Ain't he a little angel?
• In episode 6.03, "The Third Man", Castiel states (like it's the most obvious thing in the world) that he and Dean "share a more profound bond" than Cas and Sam. The way he says it and then looks back at Dean makes it look like it's something he'd told Dean before, but "wasn't going to mention it" (his words) to Sam.
• In episode 6x10, "Caged Heat", Castiel and Meg unexpectedly start making out. The Winchesters could've turned around or pretended not to see, but the fact that they ogled the whole thing with those particular expressions on their faces made it hard not to think other things. Dean's shuffling and awkward little dance — like he doesn't know what to do◊ with his hands — made the entire scene all the more Ho Yay-tastic.
• In Episode 6x19, "Mommy Dearest", When Sam and Dean are about to leave the police station to escort two children home, Cas emotionally (or at least, emotionally by Cas standards) pleads with Dean to stay and help him. Not Sam, just Dean. The intense eye contact and close proximity did nothing to lessen the sexual tension, and the poignant music playing in the background as Cas watched Dean leave with a hurt expression certainly didn't help either.
• Episode 6x20, "The Man Who Would Be King", is one giant testament to Dean and Cas's relationship, depressing ending included.
  • Dean seems really reluctant to suspect Castiel's working with Crowley, and seems visibly distressed by it. When Castiel is spying on them, he gives Dean a long, mournful look.
  • Dean doesn't want to believe the truth about Castiel, Castiel's desire to have his friends [read: Dean] not think poorly of him, topped with the emotional confrontation at the end. Take away all the heaven/hell/angels/demons stuff and this is an episode about cheating. Castiel is a cheating husband who covers his tracks and eventually slips up, Crowley is the other woman and Dean is the wife who won't listen to her girlfriends when they tell him her man is cheating. Take a look at this exchange and replace 'working' with 'sleeping', seriously.
  Dean: You got to look at me, man. You got to level with me and tell me what's going on. Look me in the eye, and tell me you're not working with Crowley.
  [Castiel looks at Dean, but then looks away]
  Dean: ... Son of a bitch.
  Castiel: Let me explain.
  Dean: You're in it with him? You and Crowley have been going after Purgatory together? You have, huh? This whole time!
  • This is further underscored earlier in the episode when Cas goes to talk to Crowley. During this scene, the song Me and Mrs. Jones is playing in the background—a song about a destructive extramarital affair.
  • Note too his face during the line "Superman gone Dark Side"/"Superman going to the Dark Side", and even more look at his expression when he turns back to look at Castiel one final time before leaving the warehouse. He seriously looks like he's about to cry.
  • At the end of episode Cas sneak into the bunker to explain himself to Dean. Not Bobby, not Sam only to Dean.
• Castiel cares about humanity only in a very detached way. Him turning against heaven is motivated by a desire to keep Dean's friendship (as confirmed by Misha Collins — and the script). Teaming up with Crowley is motivated by not wanting to cause Dean further anguish.
• Episode 7x01, "Meet the New Boss".
  • Right at the beginning, Cas says specifically the point of becoming God was to attain Dean's love.
  Godstiel: Stop it. What’s the point if you don’t mean it? You fear me. Not love, not respect, just fear.
  • The first thing he does as Godstiel is to smite a minister in the middle of a sermon about the evils of homosexuality.
  • At the end of the episode, right at the beginning of the ritual, Cas falls and Dean starts forward to help him immediately, is hesitant to let go, and is clearly ready to catch Cas if he starts to fall again. Then when Cas heals and opens his eyes, Dean helps him up, holding on to him rather longer than necessary, and when he does let go he trails his hand down Cas's arm slowly.
  • After Cas sends all the souls (sans Leviathans) back to Purgatory, he tells Dean, "I'm going to find some way to redeem myself to you." He looks only at Dean when he says this, even though Bobby is standing right next to them, and he explicitly says to you, with no mention of Sam, whom Cas hurt arguably much more than he hurt Dean.
• Episode 7x02 is just as amazing. In particular, when Castiel seemingly explodes underwater and his trench coat (over coat) washes ashore, Dean picks it up, folds it, and takes it with him throughout the season as a Tragic Keepsake. Not only that, but he folds it roughly the way the flags on veterans' coffins are folded for their widows/widowers.
• 7X6, "Slash Fiction": When Sam turns on the radio, and Air Supply's "All out of Love" starts playing. He's about to change it, but Dean stops him, and in fact starts singing along. At first, it looks like it's just another example of something Dean enjoys ironically... except the scene drags on just a little too long for that and it isn't played for laughs. In fact, his expression is almost mournful as the incident unfolds. Opinions vary, however, as to whether he's "so lost" without his angel... or his Impala.
• Episode 7x07, Dean admits what's bothering him, and the wording is akin to someone dealing with The Lost Lenore.
  Dean: Ever since Cas, I'm having a hard time trusting anybody.
  • In addition, we see Cas's trenchcoat in the car at the end, and that pony from last episode — the one with the wings — is next to it.
• Episode 7x17, the return of Castiel, has several moments:
  • Even though his wife was just held captive by a demon, it's Dean who holds Emmanuel's attention, and not her, in their conversation.
  • When Emmanuel!Cas asks Dean if the one who betrayed Dean was his friend, Dean doesn't answer verbally, but his face gives it away. He has a sad expression on his face, and looks away from Cas, as if he wants to say "Yes, he was, but he was more than that, too," but can't, because he still doesn't quite understand how he feels, and he doesn't know how to put it into words.
  • When Cas regained his memory in that same episode, the three memory flashes shown were about Dean. Sam and Crowley, too, but with that one we didn't get to see what he remembered, only the expression on his face when he did.
  • Not to mention, Dean kept his coat in the back of their car, and there was the line from the promo, "part of me always believed you'd come back." Despite Cas lying to them about a major issue and hurting Sam, which Dean will not tolerate from anyone, and despite the two having to change cars at least seven times over the past few months, Dean never stopped carrying the coat around. He always kept it with him.
• In Episode 7x21, "Reading is Fundamental", Hester notably accuses Dean of serving as tempting force for Castiel:
  Hester: The very touch of you corrupts. When Castiel first laid a hand on you in Hell, he was lost!
• Episode 7x23 has this exchange between Sam and Dean about Castiel:

  Sam: We should call Castiel.

  Dean: Dude, on my car, he showed up naked, covered in bees.

  Sam: Yeah, I am not really sorry I missed that.

  • Castiel has been swearing up and down that he doesn't condone or commit violence anymore. When Dick Roman makes a move to attack Dean, Cas lunges between them and shoves Roman across the room and into a wall. He also draws attention to himself when Hester looks like she's about to move against Dean.
• From Episode 8x01,in six words, we have Crowley referring to Castiel as Dean's angel, and Dean not trying to deny it in any way; instead, he responds without missing a beat, and in such a way as to imply it's true.
  Crowley: (looking at Dean) Where's your angel?
  Dean: Ask your mother.
• And now episode 8x02 has managed to cram enough Dean/Castiel Ho Yay into a few small minutes to give Tumblr a nervous break-down. Just to summarize:
  • The scene begins when they find Castiel. Dean, who normally has a severe case of Cannot Spit It Out with his emotions, walks up to Cas and flat out hugs him with no hesitation at all, despite Cas betraying him and driving him insane earlier. Notably Dean leans into the hug, resting his head against Cas's, while instead of hugging back, Cas just stands stiffly and clenches his fist, like he's having to physically prevent himself from hugging back. Right after the hug, Dean steps back just slightly and touches Cas's cheek.
  • Dean admits that he prayed to Cas every night. It's a dramatic shift from his usual behavior.
  Episode 4x01, Castiel: This is your problem, Dean. You have no faith.
  Episode 4x18, Castiel: Prayer is a sign of faith.
  Episode 8x02, Dean: I prayed to you, Cas! Every night.
  • You have Dean telling Cas he needs him, clearly meaning in an emotional sense, seeing as Cas is a walking target at this point and bound to complicate the escape from Purgatory, particularly since Benny seems to dislike the idea of Cas tagging along and also seems unsure if his plan works for an angel as well.
  • On Castiel's side, you have him abandoning Dean, his only support in Purgatory, in order to protect him from the Leviathan still after him, and refusing to leave with him because he'd be a danger to Dean.
  • Cas's line about keeping the Leviathan away from Dean comes off as a confession of love, and Dean got it, too. He looks practically poleaxed for a minute after Cas finally comes out and says it. That's actually what prompts the line, "Cas, buddy, I need you."
  • Even ignoring all the long stares and teary eyes- there's even romantic music playing the whole damn time.
  • All this after Dean's spent an unspecified amount of time searching Purgatory for Cas, actually going back to torture to try to find him. And while that length of time is unspecified, it's long enough that both Dean and Cas, or at least Dean's search for Cas, are notorious by the end, with one of the last monsters Dean interrogates calling Cas "Dean's angel".
  • Let's not forget that the flashback started after another angel said he thought Castiel always had "too much heart".
• Welp. Episode 8x07, "A Little Slice of Kevin", has a lot of these moments.
  • The episode starts with Dean seeing a hallucination of Cas by the side of the road. Of course, that was a Winchester imagining he'd seen the love interest◊ he'd lost not long before◊. It's nigh-identical to Sam hallucinating Jess by the side of the road back in season one's "Bloody Mary".
    • Let's also note◊ that not only◊ did he drive back◊ to where he thought he'd seen Cas, when it turns out he was just looking at a wooden statue of a bear, he actually got out of the car◊ and looked around.
  • Then we have another hallucination not long afterward: Dean sees Cas standing outside the window of the motel. Note that while Sam was sound asleep, Dean was on his bed, fully dressed, on the computer, despite it being the middle of the night. He could easily have passed it off as nothing, just lack of sleep, or to him actually dozing off. Instead, he gets up and actually goes outside, looking around for a couple of minutes before finally coming back inside.
  • At the very end of the episode, it's revealed that in fact, Cas did quite literally just "let go". He voluntarily stayed behind - never had any intention of leaving Purgatory in the first place. Dean couldn't handle with the idea that Cas would leave him, his massive guilt complex making it be his fault for failing Cas, for not trying harder to get them both out, not managing to show Cas how much he needs him, and so he created a set of false memories so it would be much more directly his fault. So he'd been the one to "let go", really. So he hadn't held on tight enough to Cas, so he'd really been the one to fail him. So all he'd have to deal with would be one more simple reason to feel guilty, because he'd failed someone he cared about yet again.
  • When Castiel realizes that Dean didn't remember how things had really happened, he is horrified. Because the one thing he hadn't wanted was for Dean to blame himself.
  • For how many seasons now, demons and monsters have been using Dean's failure to save everyone as a taunt, to hurt him, make him feel like a failure. And then Castiel says the same thing, but to help Dean. And it does.
  Cas: You can't save everyone, my friend. Though you try.
  • And let's not forget perhaps the most blatant scene in the episode. When Cas comes out of the bathroom all cleaned up we get a shot of his shoes that pans up◊ like the post-makeover scene in a movie when the suddenly pretty girlfriend comes out in her dress. Dean looks Cas up and down◊ and nods in approval, noticeably shifting in his chair and moving his hands to cover his crotch.Cas holds out his arms and smiles◊, asking "Better?" Sam◊, who's only been looking at Cas's face then turns toward Dean, smiling at his reaction to cleaned-up Cas.And for the finishing touch◊, Dean looks at Sam for a moment, and then looks straight back to Cas, his mouth still hanging open all the while.
• 8x08 also has quite a few:
  • Dean makes a comment about getting a bed & breakfast in Vermont - which was, coincidentally, the first state to legalize gay marriage. Perhaps an innocent statement on its own, but added to the "the Purgatory in Miami" bit from last episode, it makes one wonder...
  • Dean objects immediately when Cas says he wants to be a hunter, because he doesn't want Cas to leave. Once it's settled that Cas will be staying and working with them, Dean's a-okay with it, no more discussion needed.
  • When the question comes up of where Cas will sleep, Dean's resistance seems a bit forced, and the joke he makes is more at Sam's expense that Cas. Later, they come back to the motel, but there's no further discussion of what Cas will do or where he'll go.
  Dean: Cas, you gonna book a room or what?
  Cas: (Continues looking through Dean's bag) No, I'll stay here.
  Dean: (Sarcastically) Oh, okay, yeah. We'll have a slumber party, braid Sam's hair - where you gonna sleep?
  Cas: I don't sleep.
  Dean: Okay, well, I need my four hours, so...
  Cas: (Wide-eyed and totally sincere) I'll watch over you.
  Dean: (Pauses, then points a finger at Cas, shaking his head and grinning) That's not gonna happen.

  • Sam, meanwhile, is there in the same room, but Cas is very clearly only addressing Dean when he says "I'll watch over you."
  • When Dean mentions that, in cartoons, a "pretty girl can make your heart leap out of your chest", Cas quickly turns to look at Dean and then looks back apprehensively at the dead man, looking like he were afraid it would happen right there.
  • And, of course, the scene of the two confiding to one another. Dean, who normally has extreme difficulties expressing his emotions with others, waits for Sam to leave to discuss with Cas in private about their experiences in Purgatory. When Cas deflects the question, saying simply that he's "fine", Dean persists, and is unusually frank about how his own emotions with Cas. For that matter, Cas himself is also willing to open up about his fears and insecurities in Dean's presence. The scene is shot to be rather intimate, with Dean approaching Castiel to press him further until Sam returns.
• Episode 8x10, Torn and Frayed is notably named after a song about being in love with a man who wears a trenchcoat that's seen better days. Could be written off as a coincidence, but some of the lyrics seem a bit apt...
  "Hey let him follow you down/ Way underground, wind and he's bound/ Bound to follow you down"
  "Well his coat is torn and frayed/ It's seen much better days/
  Just as long as the guitar plays/ Let it steal your heart away"
  • Castiel has been tasked by Naomi to find and rescue Samandriel ASAP. He immediately goes to Dean for help and finds him sleeping, but instead of waking him up so they can get on with the mission, Cas spends several moments just looking at Dean in rapt fascination. And if Dean's reaction when he wakes up ("Damn it, Cas! How many times I got to tell you?") is any indication, this isn't the first time Dean has woken up to find Cas watching him from three feet away.
• An episode that marks Cas' return was definitely going to be Ho Yay-heavy, and 8x17 doesn't surprise.
  • Let's start with the fact that, to condition Castiel back to factory settings, Naomi had him kill hundreds of copies of Dean. No Sam, no Meg, no Balthazar and no Bobby, only Dean. Certainly says something about the high regard Cas holds Dean in. There is a strong implication that Naomi was confident that she could easily compel Cas to kill anyone except Dean. Even Sam, whom Cas thinks of as a friend, apparently was not a significant concern. It also takes about a thousand kills for Cas to get to the point where he can do it without hesitation.
  • Not to mention the fact that, when Cas is finally in a position to actually kill Dean on Naomi's orders, what does Dean say to snap him out of it?
  Dean: Cas. I know you're in there. I know you can hear me. Cas, it's me. We're family. We need you. I need you.
  • Notably, Cas has already broken free of Naomi's control before he touches the tablet and vanishes from her sight altogether, making it clear that it's Dean's words that broke the brainwashing. Then, when he heals Dean, he chooses to caress Dean's cheek with his whole hand, rather than doing the usual two-finger forehead-touch.
    • Dean also grabs onto Cas's wrist◊, clutches him in what appears to be an attempt to prevent Cas from fluttering off, and then all but caresses his arm.
  • Worth mentioning is that Dean was originally supposed to say "I love you" to Cas during this scene. Jensen Ackles himself confirmed it at a Toronto-Con. The line was changed at the last minute because it was deemed too out-of-character for Dean, but that doesn't change the fact that it was the original intent for the scene. Some would argue that changing it to "need you" makes the line sound even more suggestive.
  • Dean is pretty open about his appreciation of the vintage porn magazine he found in the bunker, half-jokingly telling Sam that he "need[s] 10 minutes" with it —and that's not even getting into how many times Sam's caught him visiting porn sites on his laptop. So what does embarrass Dean? Having to admit that he prays to Castiel for help. It's worth noting that he has a perfectly valid reason for his latest prayer (he needs his angel BFF to use his Healing Hands on Sam, who's been coughing up blood following the first trial), but when Sam asks him (twice) why he's praying to Cas, Dean offers no answer and refuses to meet anyone's eyes, turning his whole head away from Sam and Cas while awkwardly clenching his hands. He looks very much like a schoolboy who's been caught trying to sneak a note to his crush.
• In 8x18, "Freaks and Geeks", Sam asks if Dean needs to talk about his feelings towards being beaten by Castiel. Dean snarks back that they could get some Cowboy Junkies music for the conversation. Sardonic or not, two of Cowboy Junkies' most well-known songs, "Misguided Angel" and "Angel Mine", are about being in love with an angel.
• In 8x19, "Taxi Driver", Naomi meets with Dean and observes that the reason Dean has not warded Kevin's hiding place against angels is because he is hoping that Cas will come back. Some of the language she uses is... deliberately ambiguous at best.
  Naomi: You're hoping Castiel will return to you. I admire your loyalty. I only wish that he felt the same way.
  • It has been observed by many fans that the fact that Naomi makes a point to have this conversation with Dean when Sam is not around, and the fact that she specifically refers to Cas returning to Dean, is meant to imply a personal relationship between the two of them, not between the Winchester brothers and Cas collectively. This ties into episode 8x17, wherein Naomi forced Cas to kill a thousand clones of Dean, but none whatsoever of Sam.
• In 8x22, "Clip Show", Dean is unforgiving of Cas's abandonment but obviously still cares. He ignores him, verbally lashes out, and then, orders him to stay in the bat cave and heal while the brothers go out on a case. Instead, Cas goes to a convenience store and tries to buy toilet paper along with beer, beef jerky, and Dean's preferred porn magazine. He wants to buy pie, but they're out. His response to this is to physically assault the teenage cashier, manically declaring he needs pie. The sad thing is that if he'd just been there at the bat cave when the brothers returned, Dean might have finally started to relax and been more willing to start mending their relationship.
  • They also have something far too close to a couple's fight at the beginning of the episode, complete with sad piano music and Sam coughing awkwardly to remind the two that he's still in the room.
• In 8x23, "Sacrifice", Dean and Cas are in a bar, trying to catch a cupid. There are two human men in the bar, both gruff and conventionally masculine, and in the bartender's case, heroic, as he had previously helped save Cas' life. The bartender is due to be visited by the cupid. A delivery woman comes in, and they assume she and the bartender are meant to hook up. Only, it turns out she's the cupid, and she got these two traditionally masculine men together. Cas is unsurprised at this twist. Dean, on the other hand, has a brief moment of shock.
  • Other potentially important things about this scene: first, there is a hunting bow on the television screen, obviously symbolic of Cupid. The two men at the bar watch the bow being aimed, remark upon it at the same time, and then get caught in a Held Gaze, indicating that Cupid's done her thing. However, this is the second time the bow is shown on the screen; the first time, Dean is watching the show, and the hunter holding the bow directly in front, pointing to the viewer... Dean. And then Cas enters, and the hunter onscreen moves the bow at the same trajectory Cas is entering at, moving to keep in line with him. So first the bow is pointing at Dean... and then it moves to follow Cas.
  • The camera angles they use for both Cas and Dean are remarkably◊ intimate.◊

Dean/Castiel (Destiel) (Season 9-15)

• In 9x01, Sam is dying, and normally, Dean would accept any sliver of a chance, no matter how remote, that he could be helped. Except, when Cas offers, *after* Dean has learned that Castiel is now human, and being hunted by the understandably pissed-off angels, he realizes, for once, that the risk to Cas if he does join them at the hospital is not worth the limited benefit. It might not seem significant, but considering how Dean is usually willing to put anything and anyone on the line to help Sam, the fact that instead, he tells the angel to take cover and stay safe, is in fact huge.
  • There's also the marked difference in Dean's prayer to Cas and his prayer to the other angels. Dean's prayer to Cas has sad, romantic music playing in the background and is shot at very intimate angles, while his voice is more emotional than he usually lets himself be. The prayer itself is to tell Cas that Dean isn't mad at him and even if Cas caused Heaven to fall, they can "work it out" when Cas returns because Dean "needs [Cas] here". Considering that Cas has already stated that Sam's condition is not something he can heal, Dean is basically just asking Cas to be there for moral and emotional support. In comparison, the music is much more dramatic and the shots much more impersonal when Dean broadcasts a prayer to all the angels. Dean's voice is matter-of-fact to the point of being cold as he asks for anyone that can assist in healing Sam. Dean wants a fully-powered angel because an angel could save his brother; he wants Cas to be there because it's Cas.
• 9x03. Good Chuck, 9x03. While there aren't any shots inside the Impala after Ezekiel detects the Reaper that's been sicced on Castiel, the camera makes it clear that Dean is flooring the accelerator. The Winchesters bust down April Kelly's door just in time to see her stab Cas through the stomach with his own angel blade; after Dean ganks her, he turns to see Cas lying utterly still and shakes his shoulder while calling his name, and when that doesn't do any good, Dean grabs Cas's face in his hands. You can hear his heart break along with his voice when he calls Cas's name one more time, thinking he's lost him for good.
  • And when Ezekiel moves to bring him back, Dean is mouthing silently and desperately "come on, come on." When Cas wakes up and says Dean's name, all Dean can manage is a broken "hey, hey, yeah" while touching Cas's knee and shoulder. He's too emotional to say or do anything else until he pulls together, straightens up, glares at Cas and tells him, "Never do that again!"
  • In an later episode (9x04), when Charlie is resurrected, the first thing she says ("Merry Christmas") is explained as a reference to her Heaven. What's the first thing Cas says?
  "Dean..."
• For 9x06, Misha Collins was even told to play the first couple scenes like a jilted ex-lover, but by the end of the episode, Dean clearly means both his apology and his expression of pride in how Cas is managing.
• In 9x09, Dean and Cas talk about Cas's hookup with April a few episodes back. The scene leans so hard into Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today? that it crosses right back into Ho Yay. It's capped by Sam's incredulous reaction to it all.
  Castiel: [...] That's according to April.
  Dean: The reaper you banged.
  Castiel: Yeah, and you stabbed.
  Dean: Yeah. (awkward pause) She was hot.
  Castiel: So hot. And very nice.
  Dean: (appreciatively) Mm.
  Sam: (looks between them, scoffing in disbelief)
  Castiel: Up to the point she started torturing me.
  Dean: Yeah. Well, not every hookup's perfect. (pats Castiel's arm and grins at him)
  Sam: All right. I'm gonna get us another round [of beers].
• 9x10 has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment where Dean reaches for Castiel's hand to alert him to Crowley's return instead of, say, nudging Cas's shoulder.
• Shortly after Gabriel refers to Castiel as Dean's "boy toy" in 9x18, he makes a snarky pun about how the angels' fall resulted in "raining winged men." It's hard to tell, since the camera was obviously focused on Gabriel, but it appeared that Cass was in fact smiling in the background at the description.
  • Earlier in the episode Castiel smiles fondly when he hears Dean's voice on the phone.
  "How are you, Dean?"
  • When Dean and Castiel reunite in 9x18, their joy is cut short by a) the looming burden Metatron has placed on Castiel's shoulders, and b) Castiel's discovery that Dean has taken on the Mark of Cain. What follows is a montage set to a sad, romantic, "lost-without-you" kind of song, in which Dean is apparently numb and Cass is angry/panicked, much like you might expect of a couple who have just split yet again.
• In 9x22, Cas is forced to choose between Dean and his angel flock. He chooses Dean. Cut to Metatron saying that Castiel's biggest weakness is that, "He's in love," (beat) "...with humanity!" Metatron fashions himself an author, but he's proven (particularly in 9x18) to be an unreliable narrator, as it were. He's not very good with details, with subtleties. He got the first part right—Castiel is in love—but the second part is all Metatron not quite getting it right. (And that pause is very deliberate writing. If the audience was meant to take this line at face value, the beat wouldn't be there.) This dialogue of Metatron's is also sandwiched between two other characters specifying that Castiel's choice was between his army and "one man/guy," not humanity as a whole. When you take it all together, this episode came as close as it possibly could to saying that, "Castiel is in love with Dean," without literally saying those words in that order.
  • The expression on Dean's face when Cas says he cannot kill him. The notoriously self-loathing Dean just looks like he can't even comprehend why Cas is choosing him over an army of angels. He knows Cas has made such decisions for his benefit in the past. But this time he witnessed it as it happened rather than finding out after the fact. This is also a callback to 8x17, which was another time Cas stood with an angel blade in-hand, being pushed to kill Dean by another angel. Dean has now seen that either mind controlled or of his own free will, Cas cannot kill him, even for the sake of Heaven.
  • According to Misha Collins, the original script had Metatron attempt to troll Castiel over his attachment to Dean by creating an Ironic Heaven filled with photos of naked men with Dean's face on it.
• In 9x23, the season finale, Metatron essentially amends his previous statement and declares that everything Cas has done thus far has been, not for heaven, or even humanity in general, but for ONE HUMAN, Dean Winchester. Cas, to whom this comment is addressed, doesn't even try to deny it. At least from the angels' perspective, it's Everyone Can See It by this point.
• In 10x01 Cas has an emotional conversation with Sam about Demon!Dean before telling Sam: "I miss him". The fact that he was practically naked in his bed doesn't help.
• 10x09 – Dean and Cas were on, as fandom called it, "Burger Date". Dean deliberately sends Sam off on an errand to he can commiserate with Cas and console him over Claire. The are shown sitting very closely together with tender◊ expressions◊, and Castiel reassuring Dean in the tone of a caring spouse.
  Dean: I ain't exactly a role model
  Castiel: That's not true.
  • Some people add that their conversation was actually a goodbye because 1st: Dean told Cas he has to forget about the people he can't save and 2nd: Dean asked Cas to kill him if he ever goes dark side. This shows how much he trusts Cas with his life.
• Much of 10x14 plays out as if Dean is caught in a love triangle between Castiel and Crowley. When Dean gave Cas the first blade it looked like he was picking Cas over Crowley, mirroring the explicit love triangle where Cain did the same in choosing his wife Colette over the demon Abbadon. This shows how much he trusts Cas too. He gave him the only one thing that could kill him.
  • In a deleted scene, Crowley says to Cas that he's burning through his borrowed grace, thereby shortening his life, "all in a desperate attempt to save your boyfriend" confirming that indeed Everyone Can See It.
  • When Cain discusses with Dean about the Mark of Cain, he tells him about how he first killed Abel, his brother, then Colette, his wife and the woman he loved, and then Abaddon's army of demons. Cain tells Dean he's living his life in reverse- that first he will kill Crowley, then Cas, and then Sam. Crowley represents Abaddon and the army of demons, Sam represents Abel, and Cas? He represents Colette. Actors and writers alike have suggested this is deliberate.
• In 10x16, Dean gives a surprisingly heartfelt speech in a confessional in which he admits that there are 'things... people, feelings... that I want to experience differently than I have before, or maybe even for the first time.' It sounds very much as though he's talking about romance (at least, the priest himself assumes this), and would make a lot of sense if he were talking about being bi. And if he is talking about a specific person, somebody who he wants to experience 'differently' in a romantic way, nobody really makes sense except for one: Cas.
• In 10x17, Castiel goes from happy while talking with Hannah to almost on the verge of tears and fury when she tells him she can't help him with Dean. He's so desperate to find the cure for the Mark of Cain that he doesn't care about the possibility of being completely banished from heaven and takes Metatron out of jail for this.
• 10x20 – Dean's contributions to Castiel's attempts at parenting Claire give off some strong "two dads" vibes.
  • This whole entrance, which has Dean being very close to Cas and placing his hands on his shoulder in an intimate way.◊
  • And this gem with Claire. While talking with Dean she asked him to look after Cas because "he has been through much." And Claire notably does not Sam for this but only Dean. More "profound bond" maybe?
• 10x21 has Sam and Cas attempting behind Dean's back, with Castiel and Dean bantering via phone call in a way that paints Dean off as a ditched boyfriend.
• 10x22 was very heartbreaking as it features Dean nearly beating Castiel to death under the influence of the Mark of Cain. At no point does Cas attempt to fight back, and Dean only stops because Castiel pleads with him, after which he can't bring himself to finish the job. It ends with him stabbing the ground next to Castiel and running, while Castiel looks at the knife forlornly.
  • And Castiel's motivation for stopping him earlier which led to all this in the first place? A Call-Back to a conversation Cain had with Dean in the previous season about his wife serving as his Morality Chain in an identical fashion, reinforcing the idea that Castiel and Dean share a similar kind of relationship.
    Castiel: And when you turn. And you'll turn. Sam... and everyone you know, everyone you love.... they'd be long dead. Everyone except me. I'm the one who'll 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 that room.
  • The most interesting is that this episode was directed by Thomas J. Wright. He also directed one of the episodes of Dark Angel where Alec (who was also portrayed by Jensen) was supposed to kill his possible love interest and couldn't bring himself to do it. These scenes are practically the same, to the point that it's possibly a deliberate Shout-Out.
• In a deleted scene from 10x23 we can see Dean's dream. The bartender tells him that he has an "admirer" and it turned out it was beaten Cas. Also, Dean referred to that dream as a "wet dream". Granted, it's as much of a nightmare as it is a dream, but the stated implications are still there.
• In 11x03, we have Dean wrapping a blanket on Cas and left his hands lingering on Cas's shoulder for awhile.
  • Cas collapses as soon as Rowena frees him of her spell. Dean kneels next to him, helps him sit up when he comes to, and cradles Cas's face in his hands until he makes sure that Cas is alright.
• 11x14 has Casifer (Lucifer in Castiel's vessel) taunting Dean by imitating Castiel. His impression consists of Castiel's usual "Dean..." combined with exaggeratedly pleading eyes.
• Then in 11x18 when Dean demands Lucifer leave Castiel's vessel he mocks Dean's concern for him and taunts him with more impressions targeting his closeness to Castiel, before threatening him with an I Have Your Wife-style dilemma regarding Castiel's safety. Since Lucifer/Castiel's lines are improvised, Dean's outraged reaction is genuine.
• Season 11 makes a big deal of Dean's bond with Amara: he's uncontrollably drawn to her, and she wants him to literally become a part of her. 11x18 shows Dean confront Amara while she has Lucifer, who's using Castiel as his vessel, at her mercy, threatening him with "a nice, long chat". Dean is paralyzed by Lucifer's power, Amara is right there in front of him, but instead of doing something to help her, he calls out for Cas (who he knows is trapped inside his own mind and can't even hear him). Amara looks utterly dumbfounded by this; so does Lucifer, for that matter.
• The next time Dean sees Amara in 11x21, she wants him to tell Chuck that she'll keep hurting Lucifer until He confronts her. Then, to make sure that Dean passes the message along, she shows him a vision of "your friend, Castiel" who looks like he's been put through the meat grinder. Amara considers Cas to be broken and expendable, but she knows that Dean doesn't. Sure enough, this motivates Dean to come up with a harebrained scheme to free Cas (and, by extension, Lucifer) from Amara, going so far as to accept help from Metatron.
• In 12x01 Mary and Cas meeting gives off very strong "significant other meeting the mom" vibes. Dean embraces Castiel before he awkwardly introduces Castiel to her, and notably Mary can be seen giving Castiel judgmental looks the whole time.
• 12x02 has Mary once again giving Cas a searching look after she realizes he spoke up to help Dean keep her out of danger. Probably wondering how he ended up with an angel of the Lord wrapped around his little finger.
• In 12x03, When Cas walks into the kitchen, Dean greets him with "Morning, Sunshine. Want some coffee?"
• 12x10 has some parallels, revolving around an angel falling in love with a human and all.
  • When Castiel and Even though Cas and Dean are bickering up until they meet Ishim, Dean does not tolerate someone else talking bad about Cas. Notably the bickering can come across strongly as Like an Old Married Couple at times - Castiel's snarking towards Dean is delivered in tones more appropriate for a Wet Blanket Wife than typical Vitriolic Best Buds.
  • Ishim, who had just declared his intention to kill the human woman he was in love with, announces that he will cure Cas of his "human weakness". He then tries to kill Dean, clearly believing that Dean has had the same effect on Castiel that Lily had on himself.
  • When Dean attempts to repel Ishim by casting an angel-banishing sigil, he warns him that doing so could potentially kill Castiel too. Dean ultimately relents, believing any chance of Castiel dying is not worth his own means of self-defense, and Ishim then remarks that he figured Dean would make that choice.
• In 12x12, a dying Cas utters the words "I love you", followed by a close-up of Dean. The subsequent no-homo, "I love all of you", directed at the remaining Winchesters in the room ironically only serves to confirm that the first "I love you" was directed at Dean and only Dean.
  • As soon as Cas is healed, Sam and Dean each offer a hand to help him stand up. Sam lets go of Cas's hand as soon as it's clear that Cas can stand on his own. Dean, however... Dean keeps holding Cas's hand and places his other hand across Cas's shoulders, and although he keeps a three-inch distance between them it looks like he's on the verge of embracing Cas. He only reluctantly lets go when Cas takes a couple of hesitant steps forward, and he looks Cas up-and-down with the wide-eyed, pale-faced expression of someone who has emotionally just been through hell and back.
  • Early on in the diner, Dean refers to Cas as his "shy but devastatingly handsome friend".
• In 12x19, we learn that sometime off-screen Dean has given Cas a mixtape of his favorite Led Zeppelin songs. Gifting someone a mixtape is a classic wooing gesture. Not only that, but when Mary came back, Dean told her about how she got together with John to prove his identity. Apparently, she initially fancied him because he knew all the words to Led Zeppelin songs.
  • Shortly after their conversation about the mixtape and subsequent reconciliation, Dean finds that Cas stole the Colt from his room and vanished. The way Dean explains the incident to Sam is evocative of someone who has fallen victim to a Honey Trap scheme; the fact that he kept the item in question under his pillow doesn't help:
    Dean: [Cas] came into my room and he played me.
• In 12x23, Sam and Dean remain reasonably composed while Lucifer is threatening them, but as soon as Cas walks through the collapsing portal and goes to fight Lucifer, Dean completely loses his cool and starts frantically calling Cas's name. Sam has to physically stop him from going after Cas, and hauls him through the portal before it closes. For bonus points, it's a direct reversal of the time Dean dragged Sam away from Jess's burning body all the way back in the Pilot.
  • Dean's visible relief when Cas walks through the portal back into their world, which is replaced by a look of utter horror when Lucifer stabs Cas In the Back, killing him. Later, Dean falls to his knees next to Cas, looking completely numb to everything around him (Sam, his mother trapped in the Apocalypse world with Lucifer, the uber-powerful newly-born nephelim...)
• In 13x01, Dean prays to God to "bring him [Castiel] back, bring all of them back", mirrorring Cas's "I love you, I love all of you" from 12x12. Neither are lumping the other together together with everybody else.
• 13x03 has Dean lashing out on Sam, admitting that every time he looks at Jack, he is reminded of Cas. The scene makes it clear that while both Dean and Sam consider Cas to be their family, Dean's relationship with Cas is different from Sam's. While Castiel is only Jack's adoptive father, Dean's outburst is presented as a form of Maternal Death? Blame the Child!-by-proxy.
• In 13x04, Sam calls Dean out for starting to act like John. John acted the way he did because he could not recover from losing Mary.
  • After rummaging through his mind, the Empty tells Cas that he knows what Cas hates, what Cas fears, and emphatically, who Cas loves. His sudden change in tone and delivery strongly implies it to be a romantic kind of love^note Some translations that make the distinction between singular and plural pronouns go with the singular for this line, meaning that if there was any chance the original English line was about loving people in a more general sense, it's unambiguously romantic here, for whom there are few living candidates, let alone female ones. The Empty then taunts him that his deepest fear seems to be a lack of reciprocation, furthering the implications that it's a romantic love. Really makes you wonder.
• 13x05 starts out focusing on the brothers' relationship. But as soon as Cas is back in the picture, the camera pans back and forth between close-ups of Cas and Dean like Sam isn't even there anymore. The entire way the scene plays out from the camera work to the soundtrack is palpably romantic.
• Up until 13x06, Dean was hopeless and defeated, if not actively suicidal. In 13x04, he admitted to not believing in anything anymore. In 13x05, all his usual coping mechanism – alcohol, greasy food, and sleeping with random women – failed him. When Billie accused him of wanting to die, he did nothing to contradict it. Now he's happily geeking out. What changed? He reunited with Cas.
  • In 12x19, Cas told Dean he needed to come back with a win for him. In 13x05, Dean told Sam that he needed a win. 13x06 spells out very explicitly that Cas is that win.
  • Seeing as this week's case is in Dodge City, Dean seizes the opportunity to dress up as close to a modern-day cowboy as possible. He also makes Cas wear a cowboy hat and instructs him to act like he's from Tombstone. Cas does his best impression of Doc Holliday's "I'm your huckleberry." in an even growlier voice than normal. Dean seems quite... appreciative of the homage:
    Dean: (gulps) Yeah, exactly. (almost breathless) Well, it's good to have you back, Cas.
  • Before that, Cas tells Jack that Dean is "an angry sleeper. Like a bear." Now, pre-caffeine Dean is acting like a grumpy bear somebody poked awake, but the term "bear" is also used to describe certain members of the gay community.
  • A decidedly old married couple moment: Cas stands up so he and Dean can leave for their mission, but Dean isn't done drinking his coffee yet, so he lifts a finger to stop Cas, points at his mug, and gestures for Cas to sit down. Cas awkwardly returns to his seat.
• In 14x01 when Castiel is looking for Dean he meets the demon Kipling, who taunts him about his known attachment to Dean by telling him "I thought you were joined at the... (points vaguely downwards) everything".

Sam/Dean (Wincest)

• With the Supernatural writers thinking that the real love story is between Sam and Dean, and Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki admitting they've read "Wincest", can you blame the fans for noting every bit of subtext between the boys?
• Eric Kripke has cited Jack Kerouac's On the Road as a major influence on the show with Sam being loosely inspired by Kerouac's alter ego Sal Paradise and Dean being loosely inspired by the stand-in for Neal Cassady, Dean Moriarity. Early seasons especially retain elements from the novel such as Sam/Sal's insecurity and religious questioning and Dean's live-for-the-moment hedonism. This is relevant since the novel is laden with homoerotic tension between the two characters, which the writers didn't scrub from the narrative despite turning the characters into brothers.
• 1.01, “Pilot.” Right from the get-go these brothers had a lot of homoerotic energy going. Dean breaks into Sam’s dorm and tackles him to the ground with a lazy smile and an “Easy, tiger.” After recovering from the shock Sam flips them over so that he’s on top and Dean is on bottom, with Dean still grinning all the while.
• 1.02, “Wendigo.” When the brothers are beaten and bloodied, Sam gazes a little too long at his brother before announcing that he’ll be the one to drive.

  Misha: [Take a drink] every time Sam and Dean stare longingly into each other's eyes.

• Sam tells Dean in 1.16 "Shadow" that he would do anything for him while they share lingering eye contact.
• 2.9 "Croatoan" Dean outright refuses to kill Sam after he clearly got exposed to the demonic virus, and even casually tosses the keys to the Impala to Sarge so the others can get away. The look that Sarge (who at that time doesn't know they're brothers) gives him and Sam says it all.
• 2.11, "Playthings" Sam ends up drunk and clings to Dean to the extent he looks like he's about to kiss him until Dean slaps him away. There's a similar thing in "Sam, Interrupted" a drugged Sam gets his face quite close to Dean's then touches Dean's nose and chirps "Boop!" And Dean just watches him do this staying there.
  • The whole atmosphere of "Playthings" is sensual, tense to the point where audiences were expecting something sexual to happen.
• 2.21, “All Hell Breaks Loose, Part One” In this show the heroes are more concerned with their Heterosexual Life-Partner than with any Love Interests. Especially the moment in "All Hell Breaks Loose" where the hellgate opens: Sam, Ellen and Bobby try and shut it; Dean gets pinned to a grave by the Yellow-Eyed Demon, and Sam immediately goes to save his brother, leaving Ellen (who is a woman, but not a Love Interest) to try and shut one door by herself.
• 4.03, “In the Beginning” Dean learns that he and Sam are named after their (married) maternal grandparents, Samuel and Deanna Winchester.
• In "Sam, Interrupted", Dr. Fuller separates the brother because, quote, "To be frank, the relationship you have with your brother seems dangerously codependent", to which Dean immediately looks upset. More so, when Sam asked Dean to kill him so he wouldn't kill anyone else, Dean tells him that he'd rather die than do that.
• In the early seasons, the brothers are very touchy-feely, especially Dean, almost to the point of being a case of Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading. Sam, in the earlier seasons, tended to touch Dean less often, but by Seasons 3 and 4 is pretty well constantly terrified of Dean dying, and starts grabbing at and touching Dean almost as often as Dean goes for him. Especially notable due to how emotionally repressed the two are.
• In 4.22, "Lucifer Rising", Dean arrives after Sam has killed Lilith and realizes he's released Lucifer. As Dean kills Ruby with her own knife, Sam holds her for Dean. For a brief instant, the three have a position suggesting a menage a trois and the brothers are gazing into each other's eyes.
• Also in "Dark Side of the Moon", they share a heaven because they are "soulmates". Ash explains the concept of Heaven to them, saying that they have "Winchesterland" and he has "Ashland", and "Most people can't leave their own private Idahos", except for him, because he came up with a series of equations which allowed him to traverse other people's heavens. He says that "A few people share, special cases, whatnot." Dean asks what he means, and Ash says "Oh, you know, like soulmates." There is then a five second awkward pause in which Ash stares at Sam and Dean, and they determinedly don't look at each other.

  Dean: Wait. If I’m in heaven, then where’s Sam? ("Dark Side of the Moon")

  Dean: [waking up after being strangled by Azazel and sees Sam] So I'm dead? This is heaven? ("Exile on Mainstreet")

• In 5.18, "Point of No Return", Zachariah lamented that Sam and Dean would "rather save each other's sweet bacon than save the planet"
• Lest we forget Sam referred to Dean as "a male model type" in "The Man Who Knew Too Much".
• In the episode "Goodbye Stranger", Sam helpfully offers to leave the room while Dean has his, ahem, personal time with "Miss October", to which Dean says he could use 10 minutes. Then raises his eyebrows and smiles suggestively at Sam as he gets up and leaves. It's even funnier when you remember Dean's stern words to Castiel about it being "unacceptable" to talk about porn with dudes in the room. Sam is always the exception.
• In "Changing Channels", Sam is transformed into the Impala and Dean goes to search the car for holy oil. After a moment, Sam tells Dean he's really uncomfortable. Dean has his hand in the trunk of the Impala.
  • If that wasn't obvious enough, when Gabriel later asks where Dean got the holy oil, he replies "You might say we pulled it out of Sam's ass".
• Who could forget the line in "Mystery Spot": "Sammy, I get all tingly when you take control like that."
• In "Coyote's Kiss" of the Supernatural book, Dean jokingly asks Sam if he'd miss him too much to go on without him. Sam immediately looks away◊.
• In "Clap Your Hands if You Believe", Lisa tells Dean she knew it was over between them the moment Sam walked through the door.
  • A funny scene from "Clap Your Hands If You Believe", Dean is freaking out about being abducted by aliens, and a Soulless!Sam tries to fake-empathize with him by resting his hand on Dean's thigh and looking into his eyes. Dean's rattled by this, but more because he knows Sam's soulless than because, like, his brother looks like he's coming onto him.
  • Dean only went to Lisa because Sam begged him too. Later we find out that Dean was deeply depressed, developed an alcohol addiction, and became suicidal without him.
• There's this gem in "The End":

  Dean: We're not stronger when we're together — I think we're weaker. Because what we have — love, family, whatever it is — they are always gonna use it against us. We're better off apart.

• And then you've got Shifter!Dean tying Sam up and laying his hands on his thighs.
• The whole jealous!Dean things goes so deep, it's become a parody of itself. In "Metamorphosis", Dean finds out Sam has been spending his time with Ruby and acts in a stereotypical jealous wife from a 50s novel.

  Sam: What, are you, are you leaving?

  Dean: You don't need me. You and Ruby go fight demons.

  Sam: Hold on. Dean, come on, man.

  Dean: [punches him in the face.]

  Sam: "You satisfied?"

  Dean: [punches him again]

• In 6.06, "You Can't Handle the Truth," Veritas, the Goddess of Truth, asks Dean what he REALLY feels about his brother. A very pregnant pause follows
• In 6.14, Dean pulls a heart out of an anatomical mannequin and goes "Be my Valentine?" to Sam. Sam tells him to quit playing around and Dean's response to Sam's little rejection of not playing along? "Buzzkill."
• 6.22 has the beautiful line of Balthazar going "How's Sleeping Beauty? You didn't steal any kisses, I trust?" to Dean in reference to Sam who's comatose at the time. Dean does look for a secnd as if he's consdering the idea.
• In the season 7 premiere, aptly titled “Season 7, Time for A Wedding!” Dean’s displeasure at Sam marrying Becky goes into comically jealous territory. He only starts to play ball when Sam threatens to cut Dean out of his life if he doesn’t accept that Becky is in his life. Dean shows up at their doorstep with a waffle iron wedding gift.
• In 7.07 "The Mentalists", Sam and Dean are going through another one of their lovers' quarrels. Melanie, a "psychic" who admits she just reads body language and makes accurate guesses, correctly reads Sam and Dean and their current unspoken drama.

  Melanie: Well, I honestly read people. It's just less whoo-whoo, more body language. Like you two – long-time partners, but, um... a lot of tension. [Gestures to SAM.] You're pissed. [Gestures to DEAN.] And you're stressed. It's not brain surgery.

  • The whole episode reads like a pair of exes running into each other, with Dean desperately wanting to get back together and Sam still bitter about the whole thing. From the beginning with Dean checking if he has any voicemails from Sam, to the scene where he runs into him at the coffeeshop and immediately starts a very awkward one-sided conversation.
• The fights Dean and Sam had over Dean being friends with Benny were ridiculously similar to a couple fighting over infidelity (and mirrored the Sam/Dean/Ruby confrontation from earlier seasons, where Dean was the jealous and angry one).
• In "The Great Escapist", with Sam suffering the effects of the demon trials, Dean obsessively worries about Sam and begs to let him take care of Sam.
• As of Season 8, the brothers definitely come across as a "little bit married." Dean's resentment of Amelia, and Sam's jealousy of Benny, make it clear that neither brother tolerates others being close or getting between them. This is confirmed in the season 8 finale "Sacrifice," where they both pretty well confirm that they need to be first place in each other's lives. There, Dean was willing to let everyone who died and was affected to make the trials happen (Kevin Tran, Kevin's mom, Castiel) die in vain to keep Sam alive.
• 8.04 has Dean and Sam decide that evil can exist in the world as long as they can stay together, and fall into each other's arms.
• In Torn and Frayed, Sam and Dean have an argument over Benny that sounds strangely like that a married couple dealing with infidelity (though married couple comparisons have been made in canon for years)

  Dean: Okay, well, then what the hell do we do now?

  Sam: It depends. It depends, on you. On whether or not you're done with him.

  Dean: Well, honestly, I don't know.

• In season 9, Ezekiel points out to Dean that he does what he does because he loves Sam. Dean becomes uncomfortable with having his love for his brother presented right in front of his face.
• In early Season 7, Sam (who's now Hell-lucinating) falls on glass and hurts his hand, which Dean patches up. When Dean takes Sam's hand again to check the wound, Sam's Lucifer-Hallucination (remember, just in Sam's head) teases Sam about Dean wanting to hold his hand. Later on, Dean holds and squeezes Sam's hand to bring him back to reality when Sam's basically about to shoot up a warehouse and has no idea what's real.
• In season 9 episode 8 "Rock and a Hard Place", Jody Mills tells Sam (about his and Dean's relationship), "Come on. You and Dean? That's something special, don't you think?". Sam seems flustered and sort of unwilling to comment and glances all over the place before looking down, as if called out on a crush.
• Directly after the events of Safe House sees Dean's greatest fear realized in 11.17, "Red Meat." While saving a couple from werewolves Sam is shot and mortally wounded. The boyfriend of the woman who has been harmed complains that Sam is slowing them down and that it would be quicker to leave him so that his girlfriend can get medically attention, telling him it's three lives against one. Dean shoves him angrily and tells him they will carry Sam. The episode parallels Corbin's dedication to saving his girlfriend to Dean's dedication to saving Sam. Dean is so shaken by the idea of losing Sam that he almost gets into a fight with a tree and has to bite back panicked tears.
  • The most intensely romantic aspect of this episode comes after Dean wakes up in the hospital. Remembering that Sam is dead, he hobbles to the hospital's dispensary and takes a handful of pills so he can barter with a reaper to get Sam's soul back.
    Billie: It's cute, though. You pretending you're trying to save Sam for the greater good, when we both know you're doing it for you. You can't lose him.
  • Later after Dean kills Corbin, who has turned into a werewolf, Michelle is heartbroken. Dean tells her she'll be okay, but she disagrees. She tells him "I watched the man I love die. There's no normal after that." Dean looks stricken, remembering how he felt and how drastically he acted after he saw Sam's dead body.
  • When Sam has finally gotten his gunshot wound treated and is released from the hospital, Dean keeps a hand on Sam the entire way to the car.
• 11.20 "Don't Call Me Shurley" is basically Croatoan Part II: Electric Boogaloo. A dense fog created by Amara overtakes towns and turns the people infected into rabid murderers before they fully succumb and suffocate. While saving a group of people Sam becomes infected by the fog. The citizens beckon Dean to safety but he refuses. Sam, under the fog's influence, accuses Dean of choosing Amara over him, to which Dean flatly denies. When it becomes apparent that Sam will die under the fog's influence, Dean intentionally inhales it so that they can die together. However becomes Amara has imprinted on him, he is immune to it.
  • "I'm not leaving you ever!
• In the season 11 finale Dean agrees to strap a bomb the force of hundreds of thousands of suns to himself so that he can eliminate Amaara, The Darkness. During his tearful goodbyes to Castiel, Rowena, Chuck, and even Crowley, but when he gets to Sam they can hardly look at one another because they're so overcome with emotion.

  Dean: Come on. You know the drill. No chick-flick moments. Come on.

  Sam: Yeah, you love chick flicks.

  Dean: Yeah, you're right. I do. Come here.

• When Sam first sees Dean again in 12x01 after believing him to be dead, he smiles at the sight of Dean and looks like he's about to cry in relief - even though they're both bound up in a cell and Sam had been tortured. It's incredibly emotional considering the circumstances.
• The look of relief on Dean’s face when he finds Sam passed out but still alive in 13.15, “A Most Holy Man” is shockingly intimate.
  • When the woman Sam is interviewing starts flirting with Sam and touching his hand, Dean GLARES at her for a moment before schooling his features into an obviously-fake smile. Dean doesn't really like people touching Sam.
• In episode 14.01, Sam is so distraught and obsessed with tracking Dean down that he has a Depression Beard and is implied to be barely eating or sleeping. At one point he tells Cas he'd "do anything" to find Dean.
  • When Dean come back, he has a strange fixation on Sam's beard, basically nagging Sam until he shaves.
• Episode 14.04 is basically the newly-reunited brothers flirting non-stop. At one point, Dean likens a young girl's appearance to Sam's, referring to her "soft features and luxurious hair", and later on suggests that he and Sam wear couple's costumes for next Halloween.
  • In 14.13, also the series' 300th episode, a misaimed spell brings John back from the dead, leading to a joyous family reunion with the boys and Mary. Throughout the episode, Sam and Dean are paralleled against their parents' relationship, and the domestic aspects of their lives are emphasized. At one point, Dean tells Sam that he wouldn't change their lives, given the chance, because he likes who they both are. The scene then abruptly cuts away to John and Mary holding hands, in an edit that seems almost designed to confuse the viewer.
• In 14x15, Sam gets affected by the mind control at Charming Acres. Later at the bunker, it comes out that Cas already told Dean that Sam had had a "wife" while he was brainwashed, and Sam's reaction makes it clear he hadn't wanted Dean to know that. After Cas leaves the room, Dean reiterates that Sam had apparently been "really happy" at Charming Acres, clearly feeling a little hurt and insecure. Sam has to remind Dean that none of it was actually real.
• In 15x03, there's also an interesting moment near the end of that episode, where Dean talks to Sam in his room. Sam's bed is made up differently than usual, with two pillows and lamps lit on both sides of his bed - and a shirt that looks much like one of Dean's hanging on a hook in the background.
• 15x09 is a bit of a strange example, as it teases a relationship between Sam and Eileen - but in Chuck's future projection, Sam still seems far more emotionally wrapped up in Dean. Eileen dies offscreen in this projection, and while Dean says Sam "has had a death wish ever since", Sam seems mostly devastated when Dean refuses to hunt anymore, tearfully responding they were supposed to go out together. At the end of the projection, Sam and Dean have turned into vampires (who have been noted earlier in the series to mate for life, with the possibility that the two either fed from or turned each other) and are being hunted by their former friends - but reiterate that they'll go out together "like Butch and Sundance."
• 15x10 opens with some very domestic moments between the brothers, with Sam cooking dinner, Dean grocery shopping, and the two of them having an old-married-couple argument about Dean's parking ticket and Sam seeming to catch a cold.
• 15x11 is full of similar married-couple bickering, especially over food and their limited travel budget.
• 15x14 has more domestic brothers going on, particularly with cooking. But moreover, there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment when Sam is getting ready to meet Eileen for a date, and Dean looks downright upset. Later in the episode, Dean and Jack are in trouble, but Dean refuses to call Sam for help. He jokes later that he thought Sam might be in the middle of getting laid, but there's an impression that Dean avoided calling Sam due to his own mixed feelings about Sam possibly having a relationship and leaving Dean behind.

Dean/Other

• All the way back in the pilot, you've got the deputy pushing Dean against the car◊ and starting to pat him down, and Dean smiles, for all the world enjoying it.
• There's also a bit of Gordon/Dean going around. After all, Dean did get manipulated pretty badly by him in Bloodlust and wanted him as a Daddy figure. When Gordon becomes a vampire in Fresh Blood, he can sense Dean's scent all over the phone shop and before Sam beheads him with barbed wire, he slams Dean up against a wall and bites him, prompting an honest-to-god orgasm face.
• To be fair, though, nobody seems to have any concept of personal space when it comes to Dean. Can someone say Azazel? He just loves to pin Dean to walls/graves, lean in far too close and tell him how worthless he is. It's especially disturbing/sexy/twisted when he's possessing Dean's Daddy in "Devil's Trap".
• Continued when Azazel possesses Dean's grandfather and moves into his personal space, showing once again that the Big Bad apparently loves Wincest even more than the fans do.
• And then there was also Alastair and Dean. With all the implications of "poking and prodding", Alastair acting like an stalker ex-boyfriend and even calling Dean "Daddy's little girl", it was all quite yummy to say the least.
• 4x06, "Yellow Fever", Dean gets drunk and starts flirting with a policeman. It's more blatant in the French dub, where "You're awesome" is translated to "You're very seductive". Yes really.
• There are not enough words in the world to describe the Dean/Nick (the Siren) in 4x14, "Sex and Violence".
  • First off, for the previous victims of the siren, said siren had appeared as a woman and caused the victims to kill the most important woman in their life. In one case it was the man's wife; in another, it was his mother, but in both cases the siren was disguised as a woman the men found sexually desirable. For Dean, the siren is a man, and tries to make him kill the most important man in his life- in his case, it was his brother. Presumably, the guy who killed his mom wasn't actually in love with her, he simply loved her more than any other woman in his life, but the siren still appeared as an attractive woman. It's well-established that Dean cares about Sam more than anyone else, but in only his case does the siren appear as a man rather than a woman.
  • Dean ignores the girls at the strip club, instead paying attention to Nick. Note that this is before Nick has poisoned him, and so any effects Nick has on Dean are entirely free of the supernatural.
  • Dean is finally infected by the siren. Nick proceeds to tell him this in a very seductive voice.
• In "The Curious Case of Dean Winchester", 5x07, Sam has just quite definitely confirmed the ID of a man. Dean proceeds to lift up the blanket and look at said completely naked man, with a most interesting look on his face◊, before putting the blanket back and saying that yes, it's definitely him, he has the right birthmark.
• And of course, in season five's Changing Channels, Dean very obviously has a crush on the very male "Doctor Sexy" with some interesting body language◊.
  Dean: Oh boy. It's him. It's him, it's Doctor Sexy.
  • And, of course, he knows the show well enough to spot the Trickster in disguise as Dr. Sexy, because...
  Dean: I swore part of what makes Dr. Sexy sexy is the fact that he wears cowboy boots. Not tennis shoes.
  • Dean gets a bit with Gabriel, too:
    Dean: Bite me.
    Gabriel: Maybe later, big boy.
• Blink-and-you-miss-it example, but Dean calls Crowley "hot stuff" in "The Devil You Know" when they're driving away with a captive Brady. Yes, really.
  • Then there's both calling the other "bitch" and "jerk" season 10 episode 1 and a girl tells them to "get a room".
• Episode 6x06, "You Can't Handle the Truth", we've got this little snippet:
  Sam: Dentist drilled a guy to death.◊
  Dean: You mean the non-sexy kind of drilling, right?◊
• Episode 7x20, "The Girl With The Dungeons & Dragons Tattoo": Charlie has to flirt her way past a guard to get to Roman's computer, but has no idea how to flirt with someone who isn't a girl. Dean has to coach her through picking up a guy.
  Dean: "It shows, you look amazing." (to Sam) This never happened.
• Early in season seven, Sam makes a joke about the current Big Bad being named "Dick" ^note of course, Sam's far from the first or last to do so, in-universe and out.
  Sam: So, you gonna look at more anime, or are you strictly into Dick now?
• In 8x13, Dean is flirted with by a man involved in the current case. It later turns out the man, Aaron, was pretending to be interested as a cover for finding out what the brothers knew. During the rest of the episode, Dean gives the impression of wanting to make a good impression on Aaron.
• In episode 12 of season 4, Criss Angel Is A Douche Bag, a guy dressed in bondage wear called the Chief approaches Dean and says "You are really gonna get it tonight, big boy. You aint been had, till you've been had by the Chief." He also asks him what's his "safe word".
• Several deleted scenes in which Crowley taunts Castiel over his apparent crush on Dean play out as if the reason Crowley can see it is because he too feels the same way. Examples include this scene from 9x10 "Road Trip", or this one from 10x14 where Crowley follows up on his teasing by dismissing Dean as not his type, in a way that can come off as a Suspiciously Specific Denial.
• Season 10 establishes Cain as having been in a Betty and Veronica love triangle with his wife Colette and the demon Abaddon. Some choice phrases from Cain himself situate Crowley as the requisite Veronica to Dean's Archie with all that entails.
• Dean and Benny's relationship in season 8 comes across as distinctly romantic: Dean hides his relationship with Benny from Sam for fear Sam wouldn't accept it, Cas and Benny fight over Dean like two love interests in a YA novel, and Dean and Benny's agreement to keep their distance outside of Purgatory plays out like a breakup, with Dean assuring Benny that he doesn't regret their time together and Benny wistfully saying that he wished he'd appreciated it more.
• In 9x11, Dean shows up at a hunter named Tara's shop with Crowley, who has been making sexual innuendos about both Sam and Dean, in tow. Tara, who once hooked up with John Winchester, shows visible disgust that Dean is working with Crowley and making it clear that John Winchester would be ashamed of his son for consorting with Crowley in a conversation that feels very, very metaphorical.
  • Tara even tests Dean by splashing him in the face with holy water, something that happens to Dean multiple times throughout the series and is always shot/framed in the way that echoes adult films with another substance being splashed in a person's face.
  • Early episodes in Season 10 are highly suggestive about Dean and Crowley's escapades, including the two of them openly admitting to having a four-way. When Dean finally leaves Crowley, Crowley treats it like a breakup.
• In 11x15 "Beyond the Mat", Dean fanboys over a male wrestler in a very similar manner to Sam admitting his childhood crush on one of the female managers.

Sam/Lucifer (Samifer)

• The whole Lucifer-is-destined-to-possess-Sam thing had shades of an arranged marriage, with Lucifer doing his best to "court" Sam and trying to convince him that it was his destiny. Brought to its fullest subtext in the finale of Season 5 when Lucifer finally possesses Sam and spends most of the episode trying to make him happy with the arrangement from sparing Dean (which came back to bite him the ass) to giving him revenge against Azazel's cronies who'd been manipulating him his entire life. Really he came off as an older dutiful husband trying to please his young, unhappy bride!
• Also, season 11 has Sam having a vision where Lucifer tenderly touches his cheek, and episode 9 ends with a horrible cliff-hanger where Sam ends up in a cage with the real Lucifer, and Lucifer's words? "Hey, roomie... Upper bunk? Lower bunk? Or do you wanna share?". Sam's terrified expression says it all.
  • Episode 9 is filled to the brim with Samifer suggestive moments.
    • Sam's conversation with Dean "Lucifer touches me and I feel calm".
    • Lucifer looks so pleased to see Sam when he entered the scene after Crowley and said "My old roomie. Hug it out?"
    • Lucifer's "I need a ride out of here" with suggestive gestures like touching his own lips during the encounter and winking to Sam.

Sam/Other

• Sam and the Trickster/Gabriel are quite flirty when they first meet in Tall Tales as Gabriel poses as janitor.
  • In Mystery Spot, whether Sam has Gabriel pinned against the wall, or is begging him to bring Dean back. Then Gabriel admits who he is to Sam, despite Dean being there as well. And then very, very clearly holds eye contact with Sam for a beat longer than is entirely necessary.
    • The six months after that day, Sam obsesses over finding Gabriel again, with numerous new articles possibly in connection to him, sighting photos, maps and various other things
    • At the end of the episode we learn the whole reason Gabriel put Sam through that whole ordeal was to try and end Sam's futile quest to save Dean and learn to live without him, seemingly concerned about how self-destructive it is. Their final confrontation can play out as Gabriel giving up on going after Sam out of frustration with Sam's need to be with brother, and that "[he's] over it". Despite all that, he still listens to Sam's pleas and sends him back.
  • There's also Gabriel's odd obsession with Sam's genitals in Changing Channels, from the Japanese game show 'Nutcracker' to the genital Herpes commercial.
  • The episode Bring Em Back Alive follows through on the scenario suggested by The Thing in spades. We not only see Sam gently caring for the archangel, but he also has a monologue about the similarities between himself and Gabriel, culminating in Sam declaring, "we need you. Gabriel, I need you".
  • Unfinished Business follows through on it even more, starting with Sam tending to Gabriel's wounds from his fight with Fenrir and being more sympathetic to his quest for revenge against Loki and his kin for selling him out.
  Gabriel: *To Sam* Don’t let anyone ever tell you that you’re just a pretty face.
• Sam's history of tension with demons doesn't just apply to the female ones. Azazel makes his liking of Sam, out of all the special children, quite plain, calling Sam his "favorite," getting up in his personal space, protecting him from other demons and trying to help him, and basically acting as the male forerunner of Ruby. Then there's the crossroads demon in "I Know What You Did Last Summer" taking the form of a handsome, dark-haired young man for Sam when crossroads demons are supposed to take the form that their summoners would be most attracted to—and Sam seemed perfectly willing to seal the deal, which would require a kiss. Then in "Two Minutes to Midnight", Crowley calls Brady (from "The Devil You Know") Sam's "demon lover." (Well, it was college.) Then there's Crowley himself, who flirt-taunts with Sam very, very often.
  • Again, Dean is surprised when a male crossroads demon appears to him and Sam in "Taxi Driver" and demands to know where the "hot chicks" that crossroads demons came to him (and Bobby) as are. Neither Sam nor the demon say anything. What's notable is that Sam was the one who actually summoned the demon (since he was the one who buried the box); that's two out of three times now that male crossroads demons responded to Sam's summons, which Dean clearly wasn't expecting. Hmmm...
• Sam/Cas "Nothing is worth losing you," and the whole speech afterwards where Cas talks about how he and Sam are possibly the only people who can truly understand each others' troubled pasts.
  • Then there's also the fact that in early season 11 Cas spends quite some time in Sam's bed, watching Netflix.
  • Cas' comment to Sam in 14x15 that he looks at Saturday Evening Posts "after you fall asleep" can be taken to mean that he actually spends his nights with Sam.
  • In the same episode Cas also describes Sam as having beautiful hair.
• Oh, Mooseley. In "Road Trip", Crowley has to possess Sam to help him eject Gadreel — the angel who's hijacked Sam's. Crowley refers to this as "sloppy seconds," and says he has no intention of sticking around by Sam's side when Gadreel. "I'm not dying for you lot," he says, but when Gadreel shows up, Crowley attempts to protect Sam by picking a painfully one-sided fight (oddly enough, Sam eventually jumps in and saves Crowley). In "First Born," Crowley references the possession, saying to Dean, "I've been inside your brother, we're practically family!" Later, in "Blade Runners," Crowley watches Sam with a look of longing, and when Sam asks what's up, Crowley starts talking about how humanity makes him sentimental, and how he and Sam are bonded. he spends the rest of the episode following Sam around, trying to get Sam to throw him a bone in this regard.
• In "Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox", Sam strikes up a couple friendly chats with, and gets defended from intrusive questions from another hunter by, attractive Brother–Sister Team, the Banes hunters. Early on, there was an exchange with the brother Max where he told Sam their witch mother "mostly" taught him "how to seduce men," with Max first looking off in the distance as he thinks about what he's going to say and then looking Sam dead-on for the "seduce men" part. His sister Alicia adds that she also taught them magic, but Max immediately says, "Eh, mostly the men thing," and smiles and looks over at Sam when he laughs.

Other/Other, General

• In "The French Mistake" Balthazar helps Castiel—despite all his previous declarations about staying out of the war—and shares a long look with Cas while he was at it.
• In 10x02 Crowley looks at a picture of him and Dean together, before one of his assistants tells him "It's time to move on." The music and the acting makes the whole scene read as Crowley missing his ex-boyfriend.
  • He also calls Cas a 'flirt' for threatening to carve out his heart, and gives both Winchesters cute nicknames.
• Gabriel has many seemingly Camp Gay mannerisms, although he seems to be more of a Depraved Bisexual.

  Gabriel: Face it. Lucifer's going to ride your ass one way or another.

  • Also with Dean:
    Dean: Bite me.
    Gabriel: Maybe later, big boy.
  • He has some shades of this with Lucifer in "Hammer of the Gods" as well, with Lucifer cradling Gabriel's head in his arms and getting quite up close and personal. Unfortunately, this is right before killing him. Then, of course, there's this line, said quietly while very close to Gabriel's face.
    Lucifer: I know where your heart truly lies. Here.
• In 5.14, there's a Cupid. He's naked. And he hugs Dean, Sam, and Castiel quite enthusiastically.
  • Dean, of course, gets taken from behind.
• On the female side of things, there's Anna and Ruby hiding out alone in a cabin before Sam and Dean find them, which leads to Anna smiling at Ruby and saying she's "not like other demons." Then Pamela comes in and gets all touchy-feely with Anna. Sadly, after they find out she's an angel, neither of Anna's girlfriends ask her on a second date. Boo.
  • When Anna and Pamela walk into the panic room together with their arms around each other, Ruby stands off to the side, her arms crossed, and watches them go, looking upset for some reason.
  • When Alastair arrives and Sam's powers aren't powerful enough to kick his ass, Ruby immediately goes to save Anna and whisk her off to safety without staying behind to make sure the boys made it out okay—the same boys who were the ones actually vital to her plan, unlike Anna, an angel—one of the things Ruby feared most—who wouldn't even be useful to Ruby in the grand scheme of things. Ruby thought that being anywhere near Alastair was a death sentence, yet she chose to make Anna her first priority over Sam or Dean.
  • Blink and you miss it, but near the beginning of "Heaven and Hell", Ruby (of all people) is the one patching up the wounds Anna has in her arms from cutting herself to draw the angel-banishing sigil. It looks like they're sitting on a bed together.
• Also retroactively comes into play between Meg and Jo in "Born Under a Bad Sign", when one realizes that Meg was the one controlling Sam's body when "he" was trying to alternately break and seduce Jo in that scene, which was followed up by Meg grabbing Jo from behind and pulling her up real close against "her" (Sam's) body in that scene. After knocking her out, Meg laments that it "didn't have to be this way...or maybe it did," while tenderly brushing Jo's hair out of her face, as if she really did care about Jo the way that she had claimed to.
• Between Benny and his...father, in 8x05, Blood Brother. Benny tells Dean he was his maker's favorite. He gives Dean the story of how he met his lover, Andrea, and how she was the only reason he could bring himself to leave his nest behind. He refers to his maker, the Old Man, as a "jealous god" and explains that he never truly realized how much of a crime leaving was until the Old Man tracked him down and murdered him as punishment. The Old Man tells Benny he regretted having him killed, and says that he wept after seeing Benny's mangled body. Later, we find out that rather than killing Andrea as Benny had assumed, the Old Man turned her into a vampire as "someone to remember [Benny] by". Given it's made pretty clear that Andrea was sleeping with the Old Man...
  • Also, and to go along with the Old Man's somewhat camp mannerisms, given the "Old Man" is revealed to actually be a very beautiful blond young man, as well as Benny's...everything, there's something of a visual subversion of the usual takes on Lover and Beloved going on.
• Squicky example in 12x10 when Ishim threatens to cure Castiel of his "human weakness". Ishim's actual intent is to kill Dean, but due to the way he starts by suspiciously shuffling his clothes around the pants buckle region as he approaches Castiel, who is lying on the ground injured and unable to do more than utter "no" in protest, it briefly looks as if he's about to commit Attempted Rape on Castiel at first.
• Andy and Ansom in "Simon Said." Ansom goes all Crazy Jealous Guy over Andy and states he doesn't want anyone to come between them.
• When Lucifer visits Heaven in Castiel's vessel in 11x18 he gets extremely up and close with one of the angels, in a position that would require him to be straddling his lap. On a fun note, apparently this part of it was improvised.
• Michael and Adam in "Our Father Who Aren't In Heaven". As Dean lampshades, Michael shows an unusual amount of respect for Adam; not only sharing joint control of their body with him, but bringing him to get fast food when they escaped Hell, listening to him when Adam sides with the Winchesters about God, and likely learned kindness from him, if you compare Michael in Season 4/5 to now. Adam demonstrates no fear whatsoever of Michael, is implied to comfort him when he learns the truth about his father, speaks to him with a great deal more respect than he'd shown anyone else in the past, etc. Adam even says at one point that they only have each other.