WARNING: EXTREME TL/DR; TO FOLLOW Well, I guess Edlund did something right then, because cliffhangers are supposed to be frustrating, aren't they? If they left you feeling peaceful, they would have to call them something else.

However, except for the bits where we find out that Amelia is a kindred lonely soul (barf), I liked the slowness of Sam's story. I continue to expect we might be Jared light for a bit, and there really was very little Cas, but the Sam scenes accomplished a few things for me, I guess--the pace was a counterpoint to the hack and slash that Dean was engaged in (I felt like we saw him fight more than Benny, but that's probably because I'm not interested in watching Benny fight, so it's unmemorable to me).

For all anyone knows, he's posting on the Trek forums or something. And then he fixes stuff! I didn't know he was handy that way. I'd definitely have called that for a Dean reveal before Sam. So--we get Dean engaging in what he says he wants, and he's showing how it's an extension of Purgatory in more than one way, while Sam is reminded of what he gave up by the relative normalcy (motel's aren''t in the place they're in) of his year.

There's still acrimony between the boys, as evidenced by the lack of non-shouting between them (did Dean call him just for a decoy voice? Why does he need to meet him there anyway?) but Sam still comes to Dean even if he's dreaming of something else--he's got this responsibility to work out, and whether it's Amelia he's going back to, or just life, then he's out--hence the frustration at any deviation off course even for Dean's "day" with one of his dead friends (still accurate call, Sam).

I guess the rest of Sam's flashbacks will be barfy, but all I actually care about is how he gets to walk out and he's not the one sneaking phone calls in the parking lot. It was good enough for Ruby, but Amelia doesn't get that much?

As for Dean's flashbacks, I can watch the poetry of the fight scenes forever. I like Dean in Purgatory, solo or no, more than Benny alone on the docks. I am comparing Purgatory honing Dean as he had his simple twofold mission--find Cas, get back to Sam, and Now It's Wednesday Sam who had one task--fuck everything up on his way to the trickster. Dean got his pastoral shit out of the way, but at least--that was resolved by this far into the season, right?

I'm not excited to find out Amelia's deal, it's not good tenterhooks like the explosion I feel Sam will have next week (because that was rubber bands being stretched taut--I can still feel aftershocks of the sensation of tension--you know how all the fics (even the ones I write in my head) have them having entire conversations silently--for all that, I think it's more that they can predict each other's behaviour and choices. Which this wasn't. This was clearly "Dean, this s a threat. I don't care if he knows my name. I'm killing him unless you stop me." " Stop." " The fuck?"

But you know what? Killing Benny is off mission. I find that moderately interesting.

I am pumped for an hour of yelling and screaming and working it out through killing shit next week--I feel appropriately ramped up by this episode, and left dangling where the tension is *just* released from it's highest point--it's not will he/won't he kill Benny, but rather a whole metric buttload of Winchester aftermath. Nummy treat.

And finally! Sam will have something to yell back at Dean. He's kinda been wedged into the position where wanting a normal life too much means a) he is replaced by Cas or b) him not getting that life is a sad development. I don't like her, but please keep her out of the fridge. I'd imagine a motel would be relatively safe, unless the ice machine counts for extra points.

But they'd moved into a place with rooms, hadn't they? I seem to recall him leaving a bedroom explicitly.

Oh, hey! She can be a hunter doctor that Sam stays with when THEY COME BACK THROUGH TOWN WHILE DOING THE FAMILY BUSINESS. And he gets stitched up for free (I wanted him to say only his brother or father does a (continued...)

( continues...) better job, and she asks if they're in medicine, and he has to umm and ahhh his way out of that one...good times, good time)

Oh! Dean's facility with the docks. He's hardly a ship's captain, but I'm going to take "launch times" and him sitting on the prow (and *not* going for the joke (having established that your sense of humour doesn't survive transition)) and disembarking with assurance and pretending he tied shit up-- I need the story where he's a townie somewhere they have both townies and boats, and he's a boat wrangler, or whatever the real word is , and he meets the seems-snotty rich kid from the Ange family while he's picking up extra hours at the Yacht Club (I don't know who runs that yet. Not too many choices) to make sure his brother can have some luxuries he thinks are important for school.

Would New England all those tiny bitty states work? I want a place where you could cluster jobs, so they could be left there almost a year--but I can't decide what the story is robbing--Grease with no cars? Dirty Dancing (although jollysnidge got there first, damn her)...anything with the townies who have to survive the derision of the silver spoon kids, and two unlikely kids from different sides of the tracks see more in each other than their friends can, so they hide their growing attraction as best they can, but there comes a point where they don't want to have to lie anymore--for what will the be judged the most harshly, Being gay, or being gay for that trash/prig?

Okay, guys. That's the most words Show has gotten out of me this season. But I liked it. I think I felt most of the things that anger you, Morgana, I like their effect, and/or I liked what they told me, and since I don't know how much the new kid might be affecting his schedule (if any) I feel I give them a pass on lowered screentime. I'm sure they're not Michael Weatherly and counting the number of lines and bitching if Jensen gets more (that's seriously some dumb shit--I need to believe that a lot of dumb shit that happens we never hear about, so he had no reason to think we''d inevitably find out that HE IS A HUGE JEALOUS BORDERLINE-POSSESSIVE CREEPY BOYFRIEND. Every woman might deserve better than him, but few need a Jensen...)

Anyway--if it's Sam light, I can only assume that it's for a reason more important to the show. They know how to butter that bread.

I'm still digesting your post, but I just wanted to point out that I'm not counting out the number of minutes Dean had on screen vs. Sam's, I was more taken aback by the impact their actions on screen had on me. Dean's time onscreen was so much more visceral, of course, and exciting and all the creeping around the mansion was all the things we love about Show. Sam's time was 'so laid back it was practically horizontal,' as a friend used to say.

Also, I'm hoping next week will be the end of the "you took a year off/how many people died while you took a year off?." Because really Dean, that's way past getting old.

One small thing: I had a really hard time understanding Benny. The accent is a little too thick, and he speaks a little too softly.

One thing that does not bother me is Dean being friends with a non-homicidal vampire. I think Lenore established the precedent that they go after monsters for being evil sons of bitches, not for being monsters per se. My spec if Castiel had not killed Lenore they would have left her tied up in a basement. When they got back, if she had still wanted to die, then they would have done a mercy killing.

Morgana, I'm saying that I had a visceral reaction to what Sam was doing too. It wasn't pulse-raiising, but that's what wee established already. If you write an episode which hearkens back to what they did last summer, Sam's is going to be slow and sweet, which is still visceral to me, and Dean's will be savage and bloody.

I also feel that it was the point of the episode, and that wasn't a bad point to have, and that they did it well.

The entire source of the hostility is that their years were very different. Maybe you didn't need/appreciate another episode drilling that home? I liked watching both slices of life, so I'm not mad at Edlund. and I don't believe that Dean got something in the episode tat Sam should have, that Sam was in any way shortchanged or done ill by flashing back and underscoring the year we missed. And we're clearly not done yet, since we don't know exactly how Dean got out, not how Sam did.

So I expect more of that contrast, if not necessarily a whole episode of it (a conversation would be great, and it looks like that hand has been forced) and that the argument will also come to a head. Don't know if they' will reach a detente, or how it would end, but they are pretty much at the full disclosure place now.

I'm very curious at this point about Sam and Amelia. I sort of get what Dean was up to -- it wasn't pretty, and it sucked, and he made himself a friend and then had to referee between Benny and Castiel (which I loved, since that's always been one of Dean's roles). We don't know yet what happened to Cas, but I know that's coming, and I'm willing to let them play it out.

Sam and Amelia, though -- I don't dislike the character, although I'm not sure I love the actress's performance, but I really hope there's more there than what we've seen, because she is a little odd. I mean, she's a vet but she's only been in town a few months and she's still living in a motel? She's a little weird about Sam, too, since yeah, he ran over a dog, but dogs do run out into the road all the time, and it wasn't like he left it there to die. Also, how are plaid shirts and jeans Army/Navy surplus? He's not in fatigues.

I can see that their meet-prickly later turned out to be something good (or did it? that picnic scene was shot in such weird, dreamy color), but I hope there's something more to her than just ... that she's weird and getting over some kind of breakup.

I guess there was a moment for Sam where he completed his read, and instead of grabbings his tools and walking out of her life (let me say--the random coincidence of them being at the same motel, never having seen each other, and this a motel with a nice-enough sofa you sitdown for cuppa an and end up with dog in your lap--where is this, precisely? And I don't mean that in a location card sort of a way.

Anyway--he read her, saw someone who hasn't been as itinerant as he has his whole life, but she is alone. Even if she's not looking for someone, exactly, she's looking for someplace to belong. And I guess that's the beginning of the end for Sam--I knew that was important to him--I just thought he'd found that. With Dean, and in the Impala. And I don't want to be told that's no healthy way to live. I'm not stupid. I'm watching for the unhealthy.

I don't like "angry woman", as Sam called her to Dog, because she snaps at him for no reason, guilt trips him into keeping a dog at a motel, Fuck, it doesn't matter where he's keeping it, you don't just shove dogs at random strangers, even if they're stand up enough to take care of their accidents. At best you're taking advantage of a big heart, at worst, you're fucking up two lives. Jeez.

Yeah--her Army Surplus jibe doesn't really match his clothes. I mean, I guess he could have gotten his jackets there? And I guess the costumers know where those clothes are from? Just--if I were picking an Army for his fashion choices, I'd have gone with Salvation, but either way, you're being douchey about his clothes? What next? Does his mother dress him funny?

I get antagonistic meets. In fact, I LOVE THEM. This was a snippy on one side, guilty on the other side meet, and I guess were going to get to see how Sam's empathy and pulling her out of the shell she's building for herself because of her recent losses, and they both discover they're good for each other, the sex is marvellous, Dog likes them both equally, and they're liking each other and what they have more and more.

Whatever. I need 5 more minutes of Purgatory to feel up to date with their shenanigans, unless they want to give me more sex and eye-sex. Or prickly Cas (I may have to rewatch "I'm not your aunt.." again--he's back!). But I need an idea of how they came back, how hard they tried to bring Cas, ad how it failed. Boom, Dean's done. For Cas, since I'm assuming he does get out, we can cover his continued efforts later.

But Sam needs a whole lot of explanation, and taking me through the beats of a relationship that I don't get yet. Normally, by this point, I'd be all "Hey, I like you, character. I don't understand your choice in partners, but I want your fictional self to be happy." But that's only if it's not causing dissension and strife.

I just...when did they say they'd stop trying to save each other? Did I block that out to save my sanity? Sam said Dean wasn't to save him from the cage because he safety of the world depended on it, and Sam nows Dean didn't listen. Because that hurt, but Dean reacted like it had been said, and that he thought it was clear they were both lying at the time, because that is the WInchester way.

Suffice it to say--this was an odd numbered ep, which means it dealt more with them, and it broke the pattern and I liked it, and it seems clear that next week breaks the even number pattern of not so much being about the brotherly feels.

Man, I wish there were a non--offensive way to say "bros before hos". But that's the upshot, without singling out the woman in question as being of dubious repute--and I'm sure he'd have been as mad if it were a gay relationship--it's a blood is thicker than everything, if I haven't killed you or left you in hell without a second thought.

Damn this ep...the words..

i'm all kinds of bored with Amelia. i care not about how Sam won her over.

Right now, I am kind of hoping she's a demon.