#and then kept her 'dead' for two and a half seasons just to unfridge her for Sam's sake without actually putting in the work to build that

[mittensmorgul]

Could you possibly expand on what you meant when you said "what we’ve actually been seeing on screen over the course of the TWO ADDITIONAL SEASONS that have elapsed since we last saw Eileen?" I'm trying to temper my expectations when it comes to her return because I love her so much.

Ah... I meant Sam mourning for her, and then... literally everything else that’s happened over the course of the ensuing two seasons? Everything from Sam’s coming to terms with Mary, with John (in 14.13), with his own life as it stands, with Rowena, with whatever “destiny” had in store for them but now seems more rooted in choice than ever. (that was kinda the plot of 13.19 and the foundation of their relationship since that point). 

But I really also want to caution that one thing Dabb, Bobo, and Buckner said repeatedly yesterday was that these “returning characters” were not going to be the focus of long arcs, you know? I just think it’s a mistake to assume Eileen would be different than any of the other returning characters in that respect. If for nothing else than to avoid horrific disappointment and renewed anger against the show over her.

We don’t know WHEN she will be back, first off. Early on? later in the season? We don’t know HOW she will be back. Will it be in a flashback? As a ghost? Time travel? “was never actually dead but in hiding and what we saw wasn’t actually Eileen getting killed at all?” We don’t know that she’ll be back for more than a single episode, either, or what the context of her being back will be.

I just saw a LOT of people immediately jumping to the conclusion that she will be back, 100% her, and obviously will become regular enough to evolve into Sam’s endgame love interest without stopping to consider that maybe there’s something else planned for her character, you know?

And I... was kind of annoyed by that reaction a bit, tbh. I mean, I love Eileen (heck, before 12.21 every time I’d mention her to Mr. Mittens he would correct me and say, “You mean Mrs. Sam Winchester?” we ADORE Eileen, and legit thought there was endgame relationship potential between them... two and a half years ago), and maybe things would’ve been different between her and Sam if she’d lived, and they had spent the last two years carrying out a growing relationship. But we saw her in TWO episodes before she died. Not to devalue the “we knew they talked regularly over skype all the time” thing, because obviously that was laying some major groundwork between them... but then she died. Sam mourned her, and then he moved on.

I find it gratifying that folks DO feel so strongly about Saileen as a ship, because they literally used Destiel parallels to signal their relationship had romantic potential at that time. But Sam has also been building an interesting relationship with Rowena over the last few years, and having their destinies literally tied together has given an interesting twist to their dynamic. Rowena’s been on something like 37 episodes over the last five seasons, and in that time they’ve gone from enemies, to antagonistic allies, to reluctant allies, to tentative acquaintances, to going through a series of events from Rowena risking her life to save Dean-- and then Sam-- in 12.11, to someone they feel compelled to protect in s13, and someone Sam trusts enough in 13.12 to give her the page from the grimoire she’d been after... 13.19 changes the game again. And now she’s as close to being an honorary Winchester (by CHOICE!) after the events of 14.07 (she still could’ve refused to stay and help find a cure for Jack, but in staying she made a huge personal choice), of 14.14 (wherein she could’ve fled Michael’s offer (maybe...), but her choice to say yes to him was literally framed around protecting the people she’d come to care so much about, but Rowena specifically made it about Sam... so...)

So Sam and Eileen may have hit some highlights of destiel romantic parallels over the two episodes we have of them together, Rowena has been working the long game in that regard... I actually felt offended on Rowena’s behalf that all of this relationship and character growth would be tossed out so Sam could go be happy with someone he had seen twice, more than two years ago... (yes I know he saw her more off camera, but this was OUR basis for their entire relationship). I mean, at that point, why not just resurrect Jessica and let him have his original girlfriend. Or resurrect Sara Blake and let him have her. Or send him back to s8 Amelia.

I guess maybe part of my reaction was based on comments I’ve heard speculating on Dean’s endgame love interest potential... and how irritating it is that people think he’d be happy to just go back to Lisa now if everything was just normal again (I can’t even express how sickened I am by this, going back to the woman who had all memories of Dean wiped from her mind to protect her, so there’s not even any baseline history between them to work from, you know? How the fuck skeevy is that?). And Dean doesn’t really have a comparable “is also a hunter, someone in the life” relationship with someone with that small a footprint on the show, either. I mean, he already has far more history with Jody and Donna, and they’ve never had any romantic coding anyway... I’m just rambling now, but as much as I love Eileen, and absolutely saw potential for an endgame between her and Sam two years ago, I find it a little disturbing how quickly people were willing to just assume she’ll be back permanently now and obviously will be there to become Sam’s romantic endgame partner, as if nothing had ever happened and as if Sam hasn’t had two years worth of developing relationship with Rowena since then...

Not that I think we’re guaranteed for Sam to have some endgame love interest at all, but Rowena is about the closest thing to what I would’ve ever thought could be his endgame partner in that regard... far more than Eileen, even.

But hey, if I’m wrong and Eileen shows up in episode 2 or 3 or something, and isn’t a ghost/memory/hallucination/djinn dream/shapeshifter/literally someone they visit in the past or who is brought to the future or is from an alternate universe or whatever, and if she sticks around for more than one episode before disappearing again, and if they really begin to lay groundwork for her to remain in their lives, then we can disregard all of what I’ve said here. But until I see that actually happen, I’m going to assume that Eileen (literally mentioned by Dabb in the same breath as Adam AND Rowena as someone who will be back... and one of these things is not like the others, in that Rowena is currently ALIVE in canon) is just another returning character “from the past,” who were described repeatedly as basically one-off appearances for s15...