Also, Mark Sheppard's vocal register rising like Mariah Carey singing the national anthem throughout that "Am I the only game piece on the board who doesn't underestimate those denim-wrapped nightmares?!?" line never stops being hilarious.

Pity there wasn't a hellhound in the room to start yowling in harmony with him.

Didn't Cas say something about Raphael to Dean, when they were in the car at the very end of Swan Song?

I could be remembering that wrong, though.

He said that without Michael Heaven would be in turmoil and need re-ordering. I don't think he ever mentioned Raphael.

Why do artists keep parting Cas's hair on his left? Most often it's on his right. Dean's is on his left.

ita's the cutest, pass it on.

It's a thing, dammit!

Some poster on IO9 is suggesting that Cas will be killed by Dean in the season finale. Really? Would show go so dark? Killing your resurrected grandfather who tried to kill you is one thing, but even though Dean leveraged the thread, I really don't feel the heat behind it, just the regret that it's even come to saying things like that.

My god! We're just over a week away from hearing "Carry on wayward son" again. It's been in my head all day.

I think I would notice *on* Dean or Cas on the show, but looking at art I'm just not that detail-oriented. In fact, if they parted the actor's hair on the wrong side, I would probably know something was wrong, but not what.

Now I hope Sera or whoever doesn't pass on that song tradition. Because it is one, and I need to hear it.

Really? Would show go so dark?

Buffy killed Angel. It's not completely out of the realm of possibility, I bet, but I feel like the ramifications would be so far-reaching (for Dean, anyway) that they'd have to bring Cas back some other way just to deal with it.

Buffy did not kill Angel.

Sorry, that's a pet peeve. She sent him to a hell dimension, but stabbing a vampire in the gut doesn't kill him.

Death might have been preferable, but she didn't do it.

Admittedly the guy who's suggesting it is a Misha-hater (and subsequently a Cas-hater), but I really would be surprised if it came to that.

Catch up with me in just over a week.

You don't agree that emotionally, if not technically, that's what it felt like she was doing? She even says so: "I told him I loved him, I kissed him, and I killed him."

I think that's more important than the mechanics of it. She banished him from her life in the most permanent way possible (or at least she thought so at the time), and if Dean had to do something similar, I think the emotional impact was resonate the same way.

For me, I see a difference between Dean dying in S3 and Sam going to Hell in S5, and that's the same difference between dusting a vamp and banishing them somewhere else.

I know she said she killed him, but I think that's sloppy writing I now have to reconcile with the character.

Maybe we'll get an is he/isn't he finale cliffhanger with Cas--would be interesting to have a non-Winchester cliffhanger--but I think it's way more likely he'll make a huge sacrifice that might end in death rather than it being at Dean's hand.

And I think it fairly unlikely he won't be back next year. Just fairly.