I'm with you, Juliebird. I suspect Alistair's antics had nothing on what Lucifer and/or Michael was capable of.

OMG yes. This made no sense at all. We've never seen any of them (Dean, Sam or Bobby) be this careless about verifying the identity of anyone before.

That is one of the things that kind of threw me out of the episode, to be honest. Dean just accepting that was Sam after Sam "tested" himself, okay. Dean has a blind spot when it comes to Sam, and I get that. But Bobby? In my head, there was a scene where Bobby offered Lisa and Ben cold glasses of lemonaide spiked with holy water.

(I did like the line "Don't touch the decor. Assume it's loaded".)

But beyond the peepee contest of who's pain was worse, is the contrast of Dean's post-hell "don't wanna talk" and Sam pushing (and I can't recall how gently or roughly) for honesty, and Sam' post-hell cold shut-down and dismissal.

I can see that if he does remember, that he might not be in the headspace to realize that there is someone who has an inkling of what he went through, but I tend to be more sympathetic to reactions like "I hurt and can't share, and I'm trying to protect myself by being glib" than reactions of "I shall revert to coldness and meanness and anger and make you feel bad about it".

Mostly, I'm intrigued by the differences and the similarities and the hypocrisy of their mutual post-Hell traumas.

What I think is interesting is that Sam is doing what Dean tried to do - leave the past behind and move on to the here and now - and is apparently being successful at it when Dean wasn't. Even before Hell, Sam was much better compartmentalizing his emotions, which I think is his basic nature amplified by the months spent after Mystery Spot. I like how the show keeps reminding us that, despite what the boys both claimed in Season 1, Sam is John's son and Dean is Mary's.

Eps finally up on iTunes, so I was able to watch the YED scene, and Sam stabs the needle through the hallucination into Dean's chest.

Also, man, that's a heavy barn coat he's wearing.

bacon and eggs: Sam is absolutely fascinating to watch. All these strange undefineable minute expressions and reactions. He's still scary and mean, but also intriguing.

Sam' post-hell cold shut-down and dismissal.

That I'll grant you, that Sam obviously didn't want to talk about his experience any more than Dean had wanted to talk about what he had gone through.

I tend to be more sympathetic to reactions like "I hurt and can't share, and I'm trying to protect myself by being glib" than reactions of "I shall revert to coldness and meanness and anger and make you feel bad about it".

But I didn't really see Sam being mean or angry or trying to make Dean feel bad. He just said he didn't want to talk about it because he was back now. It was a really short interchange because they went running off to the neighbors' house before it could go any further.

edit - But I do remember being struck by the irony of it being Dean who was asking for the "let's talk about our feelings/let's have a care-and-share conversation," seeing as how he always avoided them in the past.

I'm rewatching and I'm seeing so much more in JP's performance than I did last night. And I'm wondering if that his need to not think or talk about Hell caused a coping mechanism that shuts down or numbs all his other emotions. That in order not to feel that one thing, he's not feeling these other things, hence his need for someone to be emotional for him, his need for Dean to be his moral compass, because he's retreated into desensitized logic. And so his refusing the impala is perhaps because something so powerful as to give him the strength to beat the devil would be powerful enough to collapse the protections he has up.

truck by the irony of it being Dean who was asking for the "let's talk about our feelings/let's have a care-and-share conversation,"

Right?!

Also, Sam's hair was pretty fab in that final scene.

Also also, how straining must it have been for JA to shoot an entire episode where it sounds like he's going to choke off into sobs at any moment?

D scared me by wondering if the show felt different because Sera is trying to take it in a different direction. Earlier yesterday I had said, "wouldn't it be awful if they introduce a female character with agency and she ends up somehow ruining things." I really was joking.

After the show was over we joined in a drinking game with our housemates. D got more wasted than I think I have ever seen him. Today he says he was mourning for the show. Oh man, it wasn't that bad, was it?

I think the title cards could use less sparkle? But maybe that's a lead up to a gag? --are ep titles really spoilery?