I think we're supposed to infer that along with re-hymenating Dean and erasing his scars, Castiel may have put those memories someplace Dean can't readily access them. He *knows*, he remembers, but he said tonight, "What I saw," not what I felt. I don't think he's more than just barely remembering, and I think Castiel had something to do with that. Otherwise, as Austin says, he wouldn't be functional.

Another reason to love Castiel.

That's a good theory, Bev. I like that.

Especially when you get Lilith saying "four months is like forty years".

I would have traded Yellow Fever (not the bonus) and this episode for tortured Dean dropped naked from the ceiling and brought back to humanity by Sam.

I think there are worlds of reasons why they didn't go there, Austin, and I think all of them are related to the good of the show.

I think most audiences would have hated an episode devoted to a screaming, incoherent and ruined Dean, and a frantic, overwhelmed and desperate Sam. I think the actors would have hated it. And I think the characters would have been so irrevocably changed by the experience they could never have gotten back to hunting partners. Plus, the majority of the viewing audience would be tuning out.

Not that I wouldn't want to see at least a little of that myself, but I think the decision not to go that way was sound.

And you can still want to make him soup--make both of them soup. You heard Dean--they're miserable. Soup might make it better.

I agree, Bev. I mean, a glimpse might have been good, but then you can't stop there. And it would have been too much, not only for us, but for them.

DEAN. And Sam's look when Dean said he wouldn't describe it! BOYS.

And Dean's stance makes sense to me. I can't imagine wanting to put whatever horrors my time in Hell held into someone else's head, too, even if only by rough description. (ETA: Though I completely get Sam's wanting to know.)

I applaud Dean's coming clean about remembering. Well done scene by both of them. Would be nice to see more of it on the DVDs. I mean, I assume there was more...

Dean is really markedly older this year. It's Jensen, I think.

When the show started you had an actor barely out of his teens, with a dewy look of softness about him and a mid-20s hottie with a lot of series work under his belt. By S2, the dewy yout' had grown into his face and shoulders, his features were settling into adulthood, and the hottie had matured in the way he moved and in the depth he brought to his acting.

Now I'm seeing a mature mid-20s actor taking his character to the wall, not with histrionics but with a sense of restraint and delicacy that exposes far more of Sam's inner life and motivation than all the yelling and wing-flapping he'd been doing before. He's pulled in with his physical performance, and all that emotion and energy are concentrated behind the eyes, right there on the screen.

And the hottie walks and talks like a man, not a boy. He still has humor, and at times acts like a kid, but now it's obvious it's an act. He's not a kid, he's a man, and it shows.

...just me, then?

Hmm...maybe. I would have watched it though. On cable. Maybe I'm just a little disappointed in "the" scene after hearing so much about it. I was more moved by his scene with Mary telling her not to get out of bed.

I have to rewatch. I don't think I'm giving the episode a fair shake.

...just me, then?

Heh. Definitely not just you. :)

Austin, I feel pretty much the same way. It was interesting, but it didn't make me want to go "oh, Dean" or show or anything. I just felt like it was about damn time.

...just me, then?

So not.

I love the way you can articulate this, Bev. Because I do feel the same way about both of them, but it comes out, "SAM. DEAN. AWWW."