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.

If I were to use fragile to discuss this Sam, it would be in a positive way. He is alone, but he's been through a lot and grown a great deal. I think he'll be perfectly functional, although disconsolate and bereft. I don't think he'll snap.

If Cas really did leave Dean, on the other hand (I don't think he can travel outside Purgatory), I think he would have a break.

Ooh, Sheriff Mills. Show can revisit their potential chemistry, yesh!

I think Sam might weather Dean's "expulsion from the earthly plane" a little better this time, despite his increased fragility. I dunno, he's been through so much since, and I feel that it's toughened him ("that which doesn't kill you makes you stronger"). He's got miles and traumas and afflictions and his own experience in Hell and then living with a broken mind (where he sucked it up and kept going). I feel like he won't go single-minded psycho killer obsessed like he did between season 3 and 4 (though still obsessed, of course). And Dean's not dead this time.

Or what ita said.

Although, in a way, Sam is even more at a loss because he doesn't even know where Dean is. (or does he? Can't recall now if Crowley let that slip).

I'm very curious how the show next season will handle this.

Will Dean and Cas' stint in P-town be worth only an episode or two? Will Show do the "and they're all mysteriously back! Find out how in episode 6!"? Will one get stuck and the other escape (Cas sacrificing himself for Dean one last time, then Dean goes crazy trying to get Cas out, or Cas gets torn to pieces freeing Dean?). Will we find out that this is where angels go when they die?

Ooh, Sheriff Mills. Show can revisit their potential chemistry, yesh!

Oh yes! I forgot about her!