Dean: "He saved me. Billie was coming after us, and Cas summoned the Empty. It took her, and it took him. Cas is gone."
I think this episode's relative silence about Cas is actually one of the most interesting things about it because it really draws attention to the major hole in Dean's story, which is how he summoned the Empty. The Then for this episode doesn't include the "I love you" and most of the other mentions of Cas are moved to the deleted scenes, and then the one time we think he's back it's actually Lucifer doing his impersonating-your-dead-lover routine, basically what I'm saying is the lack of acknowledgement of what Cas said is the acknowledgement, it's the one thing they can't talk about, because he's still everywhere in this episode--Dean's whole "that's not who I am" indicates he hasn't simply been forgotten, however much Chuck might be trying to erase him, like I do think on some level the execs were trying to downplay what happened in the previous episode but that makes the fact that Dean internalizes what Cas said so much more poignant: the reason they don't talk about Cas is there's nothing to say; he loved Dean, and he's gone now, and Dean's still here, so he's spending the rest of the series trying to be the man Cas died for.
