I would have been awesome if when Adabon looked through her eyes, there was a nice shot of Dean's ass or something.

That would only have been in the spirit of true realism.

That's code for not liking it, Matt?

I was sceptical from the trailer when I thought the Winchesters were hunters too. That was...too too. There wasn't really anything else they could be without having powers (which I think it's important they do not) that keepers of the lore. And John was obviously his own brand of scholar of the dark things, as well as an analyst that impressed Ash.

It's clearly a retcon, but not a particularly bendy one.

Basically, this episode was a love letter to John, and I am all over that shit.

Lots of random scattered thoughts--it was a very emotional episode from the start of those previouslies, man--damn. That was a hell of a road so far--saving people, hunting things? Old and comfortable.

I did like it quite a lot, but motherfuckers--Castiel does not come up? And whose angel feathers do you have in your asstrunk, Dean? A counted number of them? I felt like the previously pulled up a lot of memories, but all they said in their defence was calling out one apocalypse? Lucifer comes up, you...okay, maybe you don't want to mention that Heaven and Hell alike wanted those kids born so they could play out their family drama holding the earth hostage.

But the biggest baddest non-Lucy demon shows up, and no Castiel mention at all? Would trying and failing to get him have been too much? I'm not being all "But they're best friends!" shippery about this--it's just that they're doing JudeoChristian things...it just seems like you have to explain why he's not part of the episode--the plot perfectly excuses him from appearing, so that wouldn't be awkward.

Random jumbled thoughts. I did run out and grab supernaturalmotherlode.tumblr.com, which will now sit and gather dust for eternity. I just liked how it sounded...

Oh, Winchesters. Tragic like the Atreides.

That's really all I have. I really liked this episode, but it was so sad.

It was sad up and down sad. Except for the great about John bits. Which then made me sad he is dead. But it would be nice if they could go back in time and visit him, tell him the truth, and then wipe his memory.

By nice I mean unutterably cruel, but in a way that I like.

I am putting "Men of Letters" on my to be continued list for this season. They have to investigate a possible source of information like this (especially as Legacies) which seems to transcend anything the hunters are putting together for themselves.

I wonder if Garth would get pulled into that--since he seems to be placing himself as a Hunter Hub, would he either be better at being a Man of Letters, or would he be one of the chosen few that they communicate with? Maybe they'd also like a prophet? Maybe they could keep him safe, if they've been hiding all this time?

Also, if the MoL are as stuffy as Henry, Dean's going to have a good old time shelving his Busty Asian Babes along with their spells.

Come on Carver--give me something. This has to be an addition to the show's mythology, not a throwaway one off.

That's code for not liking it, Matt?

Yeah. More of the waste-of-my-time variety than actively hating it though.

I'm pretty sure they just laid groundwork, as well as having done some (apparently needed) heavy lifting in rehabilitating John. Carver's done two mythology additions in the first 12 episodes--a set of Metatron scribed tablets on different topics (as opposed to the one we thought at the end of last season) and an entire secret society founded on supplying hunters with information.

Whether or not you care about John's image, I think the latter is going to recur sometime.

I'm curious about Abaddon and what Henry said--if he could go back in time he could do something to prevent an apocalypse starting? What does that MEAN? Why does he think he can change time by travelling, whereas his sons are pretty sure that the only reason it's been possible recently is because they broke shit?

I think he probably feels that the apocalypse happened because the watchers were killed. If the watchers hadn't been killed and this group remained, they might have been able to prevent the course of things with the yellow-eyed demon, etc.

I am betting money on the Men of Letters being Carver's big addition to the 'verse (Leviathans being Gamble's). So I hadn't thought all of them were dead, just his chapter.

Hmm.

If they're not dead, what have they been doing?

I need to ponder that. I hadn't thought of it. Maybe they've been stopping the non-Judeo Christian apocalypses?

I think they are all dead.

I got the impression that the Men of Letters as a group was gone, but I'm still not sure how far-reaching they were in the first place. Were they a kind of Watcher's Council, worldwide? Or one specific group that was more like a fraternity chapter, with no actual overseeing fraternity?

I think its a great addition to the canon, and I'd love to see more of it. Or see Sam and Dean resurrecting it. But I think (and could obviously be wrong) that if they toss that key away the way they're supposed to, all the links back to the Men of Letters and their work will be gone.