It does seem weird that we don't have an antagonist, but we do have a mystery. There's some issue with souls and Purgatory, but no person. It's probably not Raphael, it's not Balty, Death doesn't know the deal, Crowley's dead...are they really going to introduce a completely new character in the back half of the season?

Exactly!

Oh, Friday. Get here sooner.

I'm wondering... the show has pretty much exhausted its ranks of infernal antagonists, and since Raphael is currently in charge of Heaven one hardly supposes he's interfering with the proper fate of departed souls. Are there any leftover opponents from previous seasons that might be mixed up in what Death was talking about, or are our options limited to Balthazar and/or someone we haven't met yet?

ETA: Beaten to the punch by ita while I was composing this post. Though I don't think Death is unaware of what's going on, just perhaps unable or unwilling to intervene directly.

What about Samuel?

Raphael's in charge of Heaven? I thought he was fighting Cas for control of it.

Death asked Dean to look into the topic of the souls. That's a weird request if he already knows the answer, to me.

I am assuming Samuel was playing second fiddle to Crowley who didn't know the full deal about the purgatory stuff, so I would be surprised if it were him either.

I just don't see Samuel as having a big master plan, not being dead for all that time, and only being back a year. He was too long a hunter, and he's still grieving his family.

(I'm still rooting for Dean to kill him. I get that it's wrong, but damn, man.)

Adrianne Palicki's on Criminal Minds tonight. I didn't recognise her as a brunette at first.

DUDE! I totally didn't recognize her.

I wonder if they could have him win the battle in Heaven, and then choose not to stay up there.

Either that, or redefine how Heaven interacts with our world. With the Purgatory issue on the table and a civil war in Heaven and one in Hell (was that stated or implied?), I can see a shaking up of the old order.

It does seem weird that we don't have an antagonist [snip] are they really going to introduce a completely new character in the back half of the season?

I wonder if it would be plausible to promote Meg to main antagonist, or if that would be too much of a stretch? To take Matt's idea of leftover oppponents in a slightly different direction, they could pull someone out of storage we've assumed is gone. That could either be very effective (I still remember the HSQ of Darla's reappearance on Angel) or a storytelling disaster. Still, it's another possibility to consider.

I just watched an interesting vid about desouled Sammy and fandom: [link]