Dean and Sam are still very much Dean and Sam to me, though, so maybe that's the difference?

THIS very much.

I would agree that so far they have cnntinued to knock the character portrayals out of the park, both the boys and most of the others, whatever happens with plot logic.

What are the logic problems, Amy?

eta: I read a fan slamming the dialogue saying any line could be put in anyone's mouth. Uh, no? I can tell the difference between Sam, Dean, Cas, and Bobby based on most of their lines alone. Haven't you been paying attention?

I think the transfer of Sam's crazy to Cas doesn't really bear close looking at -- the wall is what's dust, leaving his memories of hell exposed (which doesn't really explain the hallucinations of Lucifer anyway, unless we say the time in the cage really made him crazy), but his memories aren't Cas's, so I'm not sure why Lucifer is now talking to Cas.

Also, as much as I loved Dean handing over the coat, it seems like a stretch me to me that he's carrying it around with him, rather than keeping it in the Impala, safe-stored wherever it is.

But my point is, I don't really care. Because the emotional weight of the episode is what mattered to me, and that was all right on target -- Dean stunned that Cas is back, and willing to tread lightly with Cas's psyche (EVEN THOUGH CAS DESTROYED SAM), and Dean's dedication to finding help for Sam, and Sam helping out some random girl even though he's on the razor's edge of complete catatonia, and Cas just embracing all that guilt and regret in a heartbeat as soon as it came back to him, looking at Dean and Sam with his heart in his eyes and his own shame so clear on his face.

They spent enough time in the episode drilling in on it not being a medical issue with Sam that I had no issue there. If it's memories of Lucifer, or some sort of taint of his torture, I didn't have any problem with Castiel taking it on as a more literal burden.

Like, it was the mark of his abuse, specific Lucifer mark that had been walled off, and Cas couldn't wall it back off again from scratch, or repair the wall, or remove that specific mark, but he could assume it.

Also, since Dean is evidently carrying some stuff from car to car, I have no issue with that being part of the stuff. I am surprised because so many of the shippers have him doing it, but I like it in conjunction with his conflict over being able to forgive him. He clearly wasn't even trying to forget.

Also, since Dean is evidently carrying some stuff from car to car, I have no issue with that being part of the stuff.

I wish we'd had the line from the preview, though, because I can't imagine it didn't have something to do with the coat being right there.

Like I said, I don't mind Cas taking on the Lucifer hallucinations (although I do in that CAS! we just got you back, dude), because I understand the emotional point of it. I just think if you go all the way back to the wall and what it is and what Sam's seeing and why, it probably isn't the sturdiest plot structure ever built.

I'm rewatching Canyon Flowers (Life) for Rachel Miner. And a lot of her speech patterns are all hers, but she does play it up on Supernatural to the nth degree (who knows, maybe she was playing it down in that role). And on Life she played a quirky sadistic character, so there is that happy sadistic glint in her eyes.

The only thing that I found to be a stretch was Dean giving Cas the trenchcoat and Cas wearing it. As a symbol that Dean has had Cas in his thoughts, that his loss was a huge deal, cool. I can even see Dean showing it to Cas to prove that he holds no ill will towards him, that despite his wrongs, Dean has grieved for him. Cas actually putting it on was strange.

Cas actually putting it on was strange.

Dean gave it to him, saying "Here. Be Cas again. We need Cas." and so he took it, and accepted that he was Cas. What is he going to do with it, other than wear it? It seemed a straightforward symbol for him accepting the mantle and the forgiveness and everything that meant, returning to who he had been, even all the way back to S5.

For Cas to look at it and not do anything with it would have struck me as a waste of bringing it up again in this context. I'd rather just have known Dean had it on him, somehow. But if Dean pulls it out for Cas, putting it on is completing the symbology.

I wish we'd had the line from the preview

I too think they shouldn't have cut the line, but the coat did say the same thing.

I'd have preferred it if it were Jensen Ackles saying it rather than a prop. Were two different scenes with conveniently-located ghost victim giving Sam candy or granola bars really more important to the plot than the preview scene that got cut?