I found I didn't like the rehash Hatteress did, mostly. Some people hit it right, but she gave me a fair amount of dissonance. I felt disappointed, for instance, when Dean didn't actually go to Lisa. I felt the author was backing down from a challenge, even if she'd set up a different emotional environment beforehand.

Sometimes people set up interesting alternatives, and sometimes I feel like "but they should have done it my way!" This one tilted slightly in the latter direction for me, despite it never being able to be canon.

I'm annoyed Hatteress didn't take the opportunity to remove completely the horrid line "somedays you get to kill a [W]hore [of Babylon]".

Some of the canon lines were peculiarly stiff given what she'd set up, which is why I wish she'd just given up and diverged further.

I don't think they're less prepared now. I think they're writing the same manner they wrote in all the other seasons.

I think the difference is they don't have Kripke's five-season road map now. I don't know if Sera's thinking that far ahead (not that she should be).

For me, as much as I love Jared, he sometimes overplays the villainous looks, and doesn't quite hit the mark with the quieter, more emotional ones. I think whatever he was doing in 6.01 during the hug was intentional, but I'm just reading it as "not the Sam we know" for now.

I think that even if they only have the broad strokes down for season 6, I would think that "how Sam got out of hell and what's his deal" would be the biggest one that would colour the whole season.

Regarding his behaviour, I'm actually relieved that it maps with the glimpse we had of him at the end of Swan Song.

They say they're plotting season seven. I would hope they'd given thought by now to what happened to Sam over the summer.

Oh, I'm sure they know what happened to Sam! But I would be a little surprised if they were plotting more long-term than the end of the season, with either a way to end it or a door to leave open.

But I don't know Sera, so maybe she has her own five-year plan. I think the difference now is how long the guys are going to want to do the show.

Well, they've said they're thinking through two more seasons, so I will take their word for it. I'm sure they have an out in case they're not renewed, but the Js did day they were signed, IIRC.

I kept thinking they would want out as badly as Kripke, but they surprised the heck out of me. Then again, they do have the Tom Welling influence and what is Smallville, in it's twenty-sixth season, so maybe as long as the show is willing to go, they are willing to play the characters.

Kripke didn't want out that badly. He's still on staff.