I don't think the writers are ever clear enough about most of those details to be consistent. I'm also not sure how much it matters -- if you believe in an afterlife, heaven or hell, your body is the only thing not living anymore. Your consciousness is somewhere else, either being tortured or partying with Ash. It's just another state of being at that point.

In other words, I think "dead" matters more when you're officially "over" and your consciousness is no longer interacting with ... anything. Which doesn't seem to be the case on this show.

I was thinking about Mary today. How did she spend the ten years of her life after the deal? I mean, she remembers it, right? And she's familiar with the supernatural enough to know that these trades are traditionally for one's soul.

The episode where Sam and Dean went back together confused me, because when Michael erased her memory then, I have no idea how much he erased. That last creepy scene made her seem completely unaware of anything supernatural, aside from vague fairy tale feelings about guardian angels.

I assumed that he erased every thing since the boys arrived on her doorstep, but why would a legacy hunter say something like that?

My definition of Supernatural-dead is when your body is done and free to rot. The soul may end up attached to a lock of hair, so it hasn't really gone anywhere, but the heart's stopped beating, and decay will soon set in.

By that measure, Dean was killed and his soul taken to hell. Dead. Sam was not killed, but his body and soul were taken to hell. Alive.

Dead is the point at which the Reaper (or the big guy himself, if you're lucky) shows up, and you either go with them up or down, or you fight it and try and stay incorporeal, tethered to something, on earth.

why would a legacy hunter say something like that?

Something like what?

Something like what?

Angels are watching over you. I got the impressions that hunters didn't believe in God and angels, just the easy bits like demons, and even they weren't something the Winchesters were expert with at the start of the show.

Oh, sorry. Yeah, I agree.

Time travel -- in your continuity, screwing it up.

I totally think this looks like West: [link]

Oh my god. Is that the kid from Pet Sematary?

Yes. And I totally think they're kindred on a number of levels.

Oh dear. (Vicki, run!)

I mean, I figure Misha has to be the one teaching him the bad behavior ...

Do you think it was harder for Dean to come back from hell, knowing what he'd done, with those memories, or for Buffy to come back from heaven?

Also, the idea that Dean was in hell for longer than he'd been alive on earth is really heartbreaking.