Of course Crowley is lying. They must know this.

I wouldn't call it happy, so much as the knowledge of an absence of pain, guilt, shame, responsibility, hunger, anger, frustration. While still being tied to emotional words, the closest thing I could say Sammy might be feeling is "relief". But then he also has the memories of the good stuff, and then what he'd be experiencing is "loss".

The more I think about this, the more I think that a strictly rational soulless Sam would look at everything from his earlier life, at all the truly terrible things that had occurred, and decide that he really didn't want to experience those feelings again. That numbness would be the way to go. And given the daily gore and fear and tension inherent in the hunter lifestyle, he's right, lack of the ability to feel anything is actually an asset.

I am getting such a kick out of Dean being Sam's moral compass

I'm assuming it's also all tied in with the soulmates concept. I hope that gets brought up again.

That he's being an opportunist bastard, found Samuel and Sam already reanimated, and is using them, pretending to have Sam's soul

Somebody's lying. Because I don't understand how a demon, even one who's supposed to be the King of Hell, could reach up into heaven to pull someone's soul down. (Although I guess there's a precedent, isn't there? When Dean made his deal someone on Hell's side of things reached up to pull Sam's soul back down again. So.... I'm confused as to how SPN handles the whole soul-custody arrangement, I guess.)

Somebody's lying. Because I don't understand how a demon, even one who's supposed to be the King of Hell, could reach up into heaven to pull someone's soul down. (Although I guess there's a precedent, isn't there? When Dean made his deal someone on Hell's side of things reached up to pull Sam's soul back down again. So.... I'm confused as to how SPN handles the whole soul-custody arrangement, I guess.)

Could, in theory be working with someone in the civil war and all.

Could, in theory be working with someone in the civil war and all.

Oooh, maybe someone trying to get Cas distracted by re-embroiling him in Dean's problems through Sam?

Could, in theory be working with someone in the civil war and all.

That's a good theory. Makes more sense than Crowley doing it on his own, or with just his minions. And we had the episode where we were told just how valuable human souls are, and I'm guess a vessel's soul would be even more valuable. Maybe especially a vessel who averted the apocalypse.

I finally caught up on the last three episodes and I'm baffled by one thing in particular. If Sam is so skilled at getting out of ropes and such, why did he have to cut his way out when the truth goddess had them tied up?

If he needed Dean to see the cutting, fine, cut a little but then slip loose and shut her up before she spilled his dirty little secret.

Maybe Veritas is really good at tying people up. Like a Wonder Woman thing in reverse?

Why do you think the crossroads demon gave Dean only one year? The meta reason is simple, but what was her justification? Because he's a Winchester?

It was heaven's plan to have him kickstart the apocalypse by breaking in hell, yes? So a demon shouldn't have had any reason to particularly want him there sooner.

Hell wanted him to start the apocalypse too, didn't they? That had been the assumption I'd been working on, that this was part of Lilith's plan (she ended up with the contract, right?) that ended with her being the final seal, so the first seal was also something she was working on.

Also, he wasn't in the mood to bargain - so he got a bad deal.