OK, what is there left in Purgatory that presents a real threat to Cas? All the leviathans are on earth except for whatever's left of the one that took on Dick Roman's form, and Cas is powerful enough that even alpha monsters have proven easy for him to handle in the past. Not to mention the fact that he was able to eat all 30-40 million monster souls and make use of their combined power at one point. I can see how keeping Dean alive and unharmed might be a challenge if he's still all unfocused, but my reaction to that "we're much more likely to be ripped to shreds" was "what you mean 'we,' kemosabe?"

Does Cas blipping out mean that he has the ability to move in and out of Purgatory?

And yeah, I can't believe that they let Megan drive(CRASH)Metallicar.

Oh, next season should be good - also damn the early OCTOBER start to the season.

Well, if he's still a pacifist and can't travel to and from purgatory (was that because they didn't know where it was, but is it still unreachable) he might still be in jeopardy.

I wouldn't think that being able to consume the souls is the same as facing them corporeally, and it's not like it went well anyway.

Oh sure, but I'm just saying it seems an indication of relative power. I was under the impression that angels are beyond the power of most things to harm, though they do seem to keep amending the list. (I assume Edgar had to neutralize the angelic abilities of Kevin's protectors a la Mother-of-All before doing them in.) If Cas was able to herd and corrall millions of them at once, it seems like he should be able to do so for whatever individual ones might happen across them and attack.

Does Cas blipping out mean that he has the ability to move in and out of Purgatory?

He still needed the eclipse/blood ritual to open it a second time, so I'm guessing no. He's probably just teleporting about within Purgatory like he was at the cabin earlier.

I do see at least one possibility of escape. We know that the gateway to Purgatory has been opened at least once without Cas himself or Mother-of-All being present: the event at H.P. Lovecraft's in 1937. If Cas can time travel on that side of the gate, he can take them back to 1937 and emerge along with the invisible thing that took over Dr. Visnyak without anyone present being any the wiser.

To me a spell that channels souls and their power doesn't have to have much to do with what level they'd be on face to face with all their body parts intact. I don't feel like the writers are contradicting themselves, therefore, by positing that Cas (even if he's gotten over his pacifism) is in physical jeopardy in their home court.

They never established if time flowed differently in heaven (or how differently, precisely), and whether or not time is it's different in purgatory.

Really, this is just the writers showing explicit favouritism towards Dean. Now that Sam has caught up and even exceeded him in the hell years department, they have to send Dean to Purgatory so he can get ahead of him again.

Let me put in one vote for Cas and Dean clearing out a corner of Purgatory and setting up a homestead and picking out curtains until Sam works out how to get them out.

Does anyone know if there are any eclipses coming up soon?

Annular eclipse tomorrow, full solar eclipse in, I think, November.

All I could do at the end was think how totally alone Sam really is! All of his allies are gone; meg's back in Crowley's custody, Dean and Cas are in Purgetory, Bobby is gone, gone! He has noone to help him!

Unless the girl Felicia Day played and Chuck the profit are willing to step up, or the Ghost Facers...anyone else?

November, huh?

Interesting - I hope it's during sweeps.

There's still Sheriff Mills.

All I could do at the end was think how totally alone Sam really is!

Situationally like Mystery Spot Sam, except that version of Sam still heard from Bobby occasionally. But this Sam is so much more fragile, as odd as it seems to use that word to describe such a man-mountain.