I have to admit, I agree with the commenters on this picture that think it's a shop and not a painting. I just can't believe they're up and saying it so cattily.

Oh yeah. While I suppose it's in the realm of possibility, I seriously doubt that an artist capable of photorealistic digital painting would work so hard to replicate the effects of using a combination of Photoshop filters on a screencap from the "Mommy Dearest" episode.

Speaking of that, I took this image and laid over the source photo, and it doesn't diverge significantly anywhere. The artist claims they painted it. Now, they're down to a pixel precision in a 1280 pixel picture. Can a paintover be that precise?

I bring it up because that artist is one of the people calling the previous person a cheater, and I don't get how their photorealism is supposed to be much better.

We've now had Mary, John, Sam, Dean, Samuel, Bobby, and Castiel make deals with a demon.

Which of those do you think is the worst? How about most justified?

Worst, I would say it's a tossup between Samuel (willing to throw other people under the bus to get Mary back?) and Castiel (his motivations may have been more selfless than Samuel's, but others' souls knowingly being put at risk... no).

Most justified, Bobby. It was a calculated move, and it was done with a clear head and (IIRC) put no one else unwittingly at risk.

Edit: YDealMV, of course. I look forward to seeing what others think and why.

By Sam's deal with a demon, you mean working with Ruby? I mean, not like formal deals like Mary, John, Dean, and Bobby?

I think I think Mary's is the worst. I feel bad about that. But she brought John back to her--which is perfectly understandable, and more healthy than what her husband or son did, which was bring people back to life to live without them.

eta: No, Samuel is the worst, but I don't even see it in the same framework.

Clearly the whole lot needs somesort of demon addiction intervention.

Bobby's is easily the most justified, for the reasons Anne said.

I think Mary's had consequences that were so far-reaching, it made it just awful, but at the time she'd lost her parents and her boyfriend, and she was getting back only one. In that moment, it seems understandable.

John's was that weird combination of selfless and selfish -- saving Dean but leaving his sons without him, and Dean to feel the guilt of being saved while his father died.

Dean's so similar, too -- way to learn from the old man, boy. But he was so alone! Emotionally, sort of understandable.

I think Samuel's was obscene, and a really poor choice on the writers' part in terms of motivation and emotional logic, so I try to pretend it didn't happen.

Castiel ... probably doesn't think of what he's doing as a "deal" in the same way. There are huge amounts of rationalization going on there, all tangled up with really good intentions. I don't even know how to feel about it.

Interrupting to post that I just had a deam that was like a Show episode. All I remember is that Crowley split himself into two mini-Crowleys as a cunning disguise. Hilarious. I think I was Sam.

Castiel's does have the advantage of apparently just being a working agreement, with himself in the position of power and able to walk away at any time if he's willing to deal with the consequences of not having further aid from below. Of course, it's also for much higher stakes than any of the others were on the face of it, so the potential fallout is probably even worse.

Okay, so who dies? Last two eps before a finale, chances are good someone dies, I reckon. And...do they come back?

I vote for Balthazar's death, I think. If not him, Crowley. Final for both.

I'm also braced for the fall of Castiel and him not being regular next year, which would break my little heart. I hate the idea of any of them getting independent lives.