Kripke and the writers' room's tendency to say "Oh, we're past that point now!" kinda ignores the bit where we don't feel like we got closure as often as he seems to be over stuff. Just...give us a line, okay? We are the crazy people that need to be told the Samulet's not coming back, or we'll pine away and die on the sliver of hope remaining.

I'm not saying we need a whole episode about the handprint or someone explaining why the fuck we still call Meg Meg or why Dean's eyes bled in Bloody Mary...but you could have tidied up after yourself, you know?

We are the crazy fandom. Placate us.

I'm cool with him staying in Purgatory if it becomes a split show, with Sam bravely soldiering on earthside with the hunting and Dean & Cas in a season-long game of cat-and-mouse with monster souls and going native.

Matt, I'd be down with this on the basis that it breaks formula so hard, which a part me thinks Show needs, or at least could stand for. But then again, it breaks formula SO HARD, and with such a long term committment. Boys have only been separated for barely an episode. I don't think even two. But we've all been asking what could be done that's new, and that so totally is.

And then again, what makes the show work is Sam and Dean's chemistry, and so keeping them apart is a HUGE risk. Not in that they'll then be making bad TV, but that fans might be "this isn't what I signed up and stayed on for".

Maybe if it was done with a long-term goal already mapped out, and the narratives were woven in such a way that we get three stories: 1) Dean and Cas in Purgatory, 2) Sam looking for a way to get Dean and Cas OUT of Purgatory, and 3) present day, with Dean back on earth with Sam, and some mystery of how that came to be, and another mystery of what's happened with Cas, and maybe why he isn't in the picture, or maybe why is he different (again). Or, since the "present" storyline would be Dean safe and out, there's no urgency, and the mystery hinges on Cas, which shouldn't be the focus of the show. So maybe the present storyline could be CAS and Sam back but Dean gone --crap, but that negates the idea of getting Dean and Sam in the same scenes to continue the draw of their chemistry. But I do like the idea of Sam getting downtime with Cas and fleshing out that friendship we never really got to see.

Hmmm.... ooh, "present time" is instead "on Earth" and showcases Dean and Cas being able to temporarily slip from Purgatory. Sam never knows who's going to pop in on him, or for how long, so he gets a bit of both. Meanwhile, at the same time, Cas and Dean are stuck in Purgatory, but sometimes one of them slips out, and the other is left alone, and when it's Dean, he's in a shit ton of trouble.

But that would have to be really and thoroughly planned out to make it work. No flying by the seat of their pants.

I'll read that fanfic, though.

The Orb of Thesselae -- was that from Buffy or from Angel?

It was from both, Morgana, but there's also a witch named Thessaly in The Sandman apparently (so now I'm wondering if Joss was shouting out there, too).

I am so not down with extended separation for the boys. I don't mind if it happens--I just don't care to watch it, really. I show up weekly to feed on the brotherly bond, and I can't see it being mined for enough with them apart, since I'm not actually interested in pining, and fierce struggle to be together again isn't a wide range of notes with which to compose.

I love me some Cas and some DeanandCas, but that's not the show, as Julie says, I signed on for.

One episode, tops. Which we might at least get, since Jensen's directing the opener, so it might be Dean lite. But part of me wonders what happened to Cas. If the opener is spare on Dean, is it just the Sam Show? Or is it him and Cas? Ooh...I can see the pitchforks and flaming pentagrams from here...Sera might be grateful she's well clear.

At the most essential--if Dean and Sam can't share screentime and scenes, that most likely means less of both of them.

I don't want less of either of them. Please write the show around that.

Thanks Amy. As soon as I heard the name it pinged me, but I couldn't pin down the source.

Which we might at least get, since Jensen's directing the opener, so it might be Dean lite.

I just read somewhere today, I think, that it's the third episode again, and the only reason I think that might be right is because there are spoilers around for 8.03 but not for .01 or .02.

A narrative like you described, Julie, would be a nightmare to write, and to watch, I think -- it would be like two shows in one. I also don't want them separated for long, especially now, with Dick dead and Sam's head back on mostly straight. I want them to have some time together figuring out a new normal with Bobby gone, too.

A narrative like you described, Julie, would be a nightmare to write, and to watch, I think

My brain had immediately flipped to Farscape and the Two Johns. I don't think Show could do it (I don't think many shows could pull that off) so I don't want Show TO do it. Again, Show is the Sam and Dean show. The idea of Show going outside its own premise for fresh narrative is exciting to me in theory, but then I think that we could also send Sam and Dean to the moon to get a fresh angle. Which is as equally ridiculous. So there's only adding and subtracting and subdividing from the (Sam + Dean) equation.

Man, I am so fucking curious where they'll take season 8.

I did ask around when the news first surfaced that he was directing #1 if they meant he was directing the first one filmed or the first one aired, and folks over at IO9 assured me it was 8E01 in question, but...he's a decent director, but this is a season opener...it seemed a bit much to put on him.

I need to ask Colin how actors are paid for an episode they direct. Do they just get their actor pay and the standard going rate for a director, or is there like a cast and crew happy meal discount?

but there's also a witch named Thessaly in The Sandman apparently

And she's a badass. I love Thessaly, and someday I want to make a blank book that has the same cover as what she's reading in The Kindly Ones arc. ("When Real Things Happen To Imaginary People".)