After all, we did see that for his own part, Bobby was drinking a lot more. Sam just chose a different way to be self-destructive.

I was touched that it never occured to Dean that he was the reason for all this damage. He asks about the drinking and looks incredulous when Bobby points out that they had to bury Dean. Like Dean knew they loved him, but never conceived of them actually grieving him. Which tied in nicely to the angel telling Dean that good things happen. "Not in my experience." Nice touch with JA's voice.

"You don't believe you are worth saving?" He never has. Nice job with the lip quiver before regaining his composure facing the demon.

eta: I have to say that I am pleased with the character moment for Bobby. As tough and as gruff as he acted with the boys, he clearly retreated from life after Dean died. And then Dean admonishing him that he should have looked out for Sammy. Dean, clearly Bobby was trying to focus on keeping himself alive one minute at a time let alone being responsible for anyone else. I'm a little surprised they went that way with the character of Bobby but I'm pleased they cast him with such a human reaction.

Nice job with the lip quiver

As long as we can stay away from the single emo tear!

Pete called it being an angel. I'm just glad it's not a snuggly-wuggly lovey angel.

Oh, and predictably, my favorite part was Bobby trying throwing holy water in Dean's face.

Well, one episode in and we've got one(1) woman with her eyes burned out after suggesting group sex, and one(1) "woman" slapped, humiliated, Force-choked, and killed.

Sigh.

On a lighter note, I dug out my Dictionary of Angels and Castiel is mentioned. He is "a Thursday angel mentioned in occult lore" which doesn't say much but seems very appropriate for this show.

My assumption with the slap was that he was verifying in a reasonably non-destructive way that the scared demons were merely bluffing, and wouldn't touch him.

It was so much lower-key in terms of violence than S3, that it was more a minor irritation for me than anything else. The bar, it was lowered.

Castiel being an Angel of Thursday is amusing. I mean, this is still a bitch of a timeslot. They could use some angelic intervention.

Dean slapping the demon in the female meatsuit didn't twig me. Actually neither did blinding the psychic after Castiel warned her not to keep trying to look at him. Neither struck me as extraordinarily sexualized violence.

All that said, overall this ep made me happy and made me want to watch my show again. And I made it unspoiled!

My assumption with the slap was that he was verifying in a reasonably non-destructive way that the scared demons were merely bluffing, and wouldn't touch him.

Or, what Plei said better than I did.

Really, it only makes sense to keep count of every female victim of non-sexualized violence (as Cass put it) if we're also going to keep a running count of every male victim as well. Of course sexualized violence (such as Dean using the demon-killing knife to repeatedly stab the witch/demon last season) is something else entirely. But I don't remember any "bitch," "whore," or "skank" references tonight, so that makes me happy. (I just checked, and this episode was written by Kripke. Somehow I had missed that at the beginning.)

I'm going to be thinking about this episode for quite a while. My brain, she is all a-spinny over everything from gender issues to theology.

One thing I liked is the implication that angelic possession is possible, but that the person who is possessed has to invite the angel in. Also, did anyone else get the impression that being possessed by an angel is very likely a fatal proposition?

Another thing that I'm wondering about is how much of the encounter Dean is going to relate to Bobby and/or Sam. I'm leaning towards 'not much' at the moment. In fact, one twist I'd like to see is that Dean can't tell Sam about Castiel (e.g., every time he tries, he finds himself changing the subject against his will, or outside events distract the boys right at the moment of revelation).

I'd prefer the outside events option if it happens. The White Hats are supposed to be pretty big on free will.

Also, did anyone else get the impression that being possessed by an angel is very likely a fatal proposition?

Oh, Hot Host Body Guy is so very toast when Castiel's work is done, if just looking at his true essence blinds people. Hopefully dude will be caught in the updraft for his troubles.