No, I meant Aaron in that episode. So far the people we've been shown who've traded away their souls acted reasonably normally.

Maybe Sam didn't have a bad time in Hell. Maybe he had a good Boy King Hosting Luci time in Hell. So he's feeling a bit above it all back here on Earth.

I wonder about Adam. A throwaway line would be nice.

Also--the assumption that they don't have to ring up Cas anymore and tell him their location...are they both sigiled up? Are they psychically telling him where they are when they reach out for him?

Where has his vessel been chilling all this while? Is it Anna style? I mean, while he was existing as a multi-deminsional wavelength of celestial intent.

I have actually given up any hope that we will ever get anythiing definitive on Jimmy and his body. I'm resigning myself to the strategy of writers saying as little as possible so they have don't run into that pesky problem of concrete facts that would limit the story of the week they want to tell. I get it. I don't like it, but I get it.

That said, I want to know, definitively and concretely:
-did Cas remove his handprint when he healed Dean in Stull, with his new and improved powers?
-did Cas remove the sigils on Dean's ribs (and, why --same goes for the above)
-Is Jimmy dead? and how long has Jimmy been dead? and is that Jimmy's actual body?

I want to know these things, but, if I'm honest, I don't expect to be satisfied on any front. I expect them to be all dropped like a knife without a bungee cord.

So far the people we've been shown who've traded away their souls acted reasonably normally.

My assumption (and we know how well those can go) was that people who traded their souls kept on with them until they died and then *bam* Hell and whoever bought the soul gets it. Like a reverse mortgage. You keep it while you live but it's not really yours.

Sam coming back soulless would be different in my reading of it.

I assume they'll eventually recall that they resurrected Adam and then tossed him in the Pit but I am not holding my breath.

What I want to know is what happened with Jesse a lot of the time. I assume the Show threw it away also though. Just a love letter to Gaiman that they burned after writing, filming and airing.

I've got to admit I've considered Jimmy's meatsuit to be no longer. Got exploded. Now he just appears that way to the boys or people on Earth. He's not wearing it at home. There he's wearing his inside pants a multidimensional wavelength of celestial intent.

My assumption (and we know how well those can go) was that people who traded their souls kept on with them until they died and then *bam* Hell and whoever bought the soul gets it.

Actually, I agree with this.

Sam coming back soulless would be different in my reading of it.

So therefore this makes sense.

But then, how would Balthazar being using Aaron's soul as currency (and with whom?!) if he can't actually collect until Aaron is dead? Or would that be like passing on the papers to the house?

How long is the lifespan, even uninterrupted, of a hairless ape compared to an angel?

It's just short-term investing in the futures market for them.

It's the way they did the action of giving it back, which implied more than unbinding a contract at the time. They just don't talk about it that way,

How long is the lifespan, even uninterrupted, of a hairless ape compared to an angel?

also true

It's the way they did the action of giving it back

You mean how Balthazar (dude needs a nickname, stat) cleared Aaron of his debt with the meditation thingy?

From what Castel said before doing the painful soul forensics stuff, it seemed like he was talking about the soul still being with Aaron (I know he said "living soul", I don't remember the rest of the sentence precisely, but that's the sense I had) but marked somehow by Balthazar for later collection. Which is what he was looking for, right, that mark. Which is what I figured Balthazar was doing, removing the mark.

I love "being a multidimensional wavelength of celestial intent", btw, but I love comparing that to putting on inside pants even more. Nice one.

Thoughts on souls. Standard fantasy trope: souls are power sources for gods and demons. Belief by living souls (whether worshipers or enemies)is a power source. Worship by living souls is even a better power power source. Souls of the dead (your by worship, belief or contract) stored in an afterlife are a power source.

But for weaker entities who don't have a whole religion devoted to them, another way to harvest soul energy is to destroy the souls and get power all at once. Like killing a cow for meat - fewer calories in the long run than you can get from a lifetime of milking the cow, but concentrated calories and protein in the short run, and no care or feeding needing. Balthazar, not having had time to set up a cult, doesn't an afterlife soul barn, but he can still get short term benefit from harvested souls.

Not saying they will go there. But consistent with the old Solstice God Sam and Dean had to take down for Christmas. Explains why they needed an annual sacrifice to stay alive. Also explains why the God's needed to set up a Hotel California last season. Eating those people was not just a quaint custom. It was a way to power up.

Nothing in past show contradicts this. And consistent with a lot of fantasy and some horror tropes. Again not saying they will go there. But maybe that is the underlying value behind the derivatives.

I like it. It ties in nicely, although I fear you may have put more thought into it than they have. It does give them the opportunity to bring Crowley back in to provide the exposition for this, so he has a function other than to stand off to the side and make bwah-hah-hah noises about owning the lien on Bobby's soul.