Alright my dear sassy anon, I apologize for the late response but I wanted to do this right and school had been getting in the way. So buckle up. I’m going to take you for a ride. *cracks knuckles*
Moving on to my overall argument. Let’s look again at Cain’s speech and dissect that, shall we?
This is a perfect parallel to me. In this scenario Crowley is Abbadon. So do you remember when Abbadon was possessing Colette in 9x11?
And then she has a very interesting conversation with Cain, that hints very stronglyat a previous romantic relationship between them.
And Abbadon then goes on to literally tell Cain “Well, if I can’t have you, than neither can she!” before manipulating Colette’s body to the point that Cain attempts to stab her with the blade as she smokes out. This parallel between Abbadon and Crowley later becomes incredibly important because of what happens after the fight. Moving ahead to 10x14 and what do we see?
What is this!? The obvious Colette parallel being chosen over the Abbadon parallel? The physical embodiement of Cain/Dean’s addiction being put in the hands of Colette to take care of?
The Abbadon parallel looking visibly aggrieved about being passed over for the Colette parallel? The Abbadon parallel feeling wounded and wronged about Cain/Dean’s actions because of the history they share?
It must all be a coincidence right? Ok well let’s look at the next part of Cain’s speech.
The second person close to himself that Cain killed was Colette, and this effectively places Cas in that position in the lineup of future murders. I suppose you could argue that Dean technically was the one who killed Abbadon, but by giving Dean the Mark for the express purpose of killing Abbadon Cain essentially signed her death warrant. She was the last person of close relationship with Cain to die, putting her parallel, Crowley, as the first to die. So my first point of Cas being Colette is simply the order in which he appears in the Cain speech. Beyond that you had asked when Cas had pulled Dean back from the edge of darkness. Well…
Cas has been intimately involved in the removal of the Mark. I have my own complaints about the show has been writing Cas as going out hunting for cures for Dean and not staying with him, but the fact remains that that is what he’s been doing.He’s literally put everything else on hold to try to fix Dean.You mentioned that Cas hasn’t been around Dean for a lot of his struggles with the Mark and I would argue that there is a pretty obvious reason for that. It makes more sense for Cas to be the one out doing this because he’s an angel. Thinking about this logically, one person should stay with Dean and one person should be out doing the legwork the search for the cure requires. Once it was clear that the search for the cure was going to take them to Cain, why the hell would you ever send Sam to do that? An angel didn’t even stand a chance against him, what’s Sam going to do? It’s totally valid that Cas be the one out searching and it doesn’t diminish his feelings for Dean or Dean’s for him. You don’t have to be around someone all the time to love them.
But mostly I just think that Cas is Dean’s Colette because he fits the way Cain described her.
"I’ve tried. I’ve tried, Colette. To see myself as you did."
"I know you watch over me still."
"She forgave me."
Basically I just feel like Cas loves Dean the way Colette loved Cain. Unselfishly and unconditionally. Complete devotion right to the end. Always putting Cain’s needs before her own and doing what’s best for him, literally to her dying breath. So now we have the final part of Cain’s speech and I’ll be wrapping up my rant soon here.
Your message that Sam is Dean’s Colette was honestly just really surprising for me to read because I thought it was totally obvious that Dean and Sam were Cain and Abel respectively in this scenario. They are literally their descendants. Lucifer wanted to possess Abel and Lucifer wanted to possess Sam. And then Cain said the whole “You’re living my life in reverse” line. Sam is Abel in this scenario because that’s where Cain placed him in the lineup of people Dean would kill. Abel’s spot. Not to mention that Abel is Cain’s younger brother and Cain gave up his very soul to save him, just like Dean did for Sam. I mean, in terms of parallels I think the Dean/Cain and Sam/Abel links are possibly the single most obvious parallel in the entire series. Unless your argument is that Sam is somehow simultaneously Colette and Abel, which, if it is I’d be interested to read.
So in conclusion, that’s why I think that Cas is Dean’s Colette, although I will admit that sometimes when I really try to remove the Destiel-colored glasses entirely I have considered that Dean doesn’t have a Colette (thanks ephemeral-castiel). What I’m saying is that I think that Cas fills the roles that Colette filled for Cain, but I do think that in the end Dean will learn how to overcome his issues on his own. I don’t think that any one person, not Sam or Cas, would be able to stop Dean just by begging, because that didn’t work while he was a demon and because this is the season of self-discovery and I really think Dean will be able to find this strength in himself. He really needs to find his own will to live at this point in time, rather than just hanging around because Sam and Cas need him. So yeah, that’s why I think that IF Dean has a Colette, it’s Cas.